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Constitution of the Allied States of Iosmein

Adopted 14 March 1961 · 217 articles in thirteen titles · twelve Amendments incorporated

This is the consolidated text in force. The twelve Amendments are incorporated in the body, the Schedule records what each of them changed, and the wording each of them displaced is preserved in the Annex under Article 208(3). References to other articles are linked, and each article lists the articles that refer to it.

Preamble

The peoples of the five states of Iosmein, having declined in 1949 to enforce an embargo imposed by others upon a neighbour, having built their common wealth upon the social ownership won in the years that followed, and having resolved to govern themselves by consent and in peace with every state, adopt this Constitution.

We joined the union established at Lindoma in 1994 and remain in it. We record that between 2008 and 2016 the offices of the State contracted debts abroad which the people had not authorised and from which the people obtained no benefit, that the Republic defaulted upon those debts in 2017, and that the peoples of the Bloc restored provision in this country with their own labour and goods. The provisions of this Constitution which restrict external borrowing, require the publication of public accounts and establish the Public Integrity Office were adopted in response to that period, and they bind every holder of public function.

Title I · Fundamental principles

Articles 1 to 22

The Republic

A federal, democratic socialist republic of five states, with two official names of equal force.

1.Iosmein is a federal, sovereign and indivisible republic, formed by the union of its states.
2.Its official name is the Allied States of Iosmein. The short name Iosmein has equal force in law.
3.The Republic is a democratic socialist republic, founded on the social ownership of the principal means of production, on political pluralism and on the rule of law.
4.The federal and republican form of the State shall not be revised.

Sovereignty

Power belongs to the people, and seizing it outside these procedures is a crime with no time limit.

1.Sovereignty belongs to the people of the Allied States and is exercised in the forms this Constitution establishes.
2.The people exercise sovereignty through the Federal Assembly, through the President of the Republic, through referendum and popular initiative, through the assemblies of the states, and through the organs of local self-government.
3.Public power is exercised only through the procedures of this Constitution. The assumption of power outside those procedures is usurpation, no obedience is owed to its author, and prosecution for it is subject to no time limit.

Supremacy of the Constitution

The Constitution outranks every other rule, and only the conflicting part of an act fails.

1.This Constitution is the supreme law of the Republic and binds every federal organ, every state, every unit of local self-government and every holder of public function.
2.A law, decree, regulation, statute of a state or administrative act which conflicts with this Constitution has no effect, and only the conflicting part of it fails.
3.The rights declared in Title II may be invoked before any court without implementing legislation.

Legality and publicity of the law

Public power needs a legal basis, and an act that has not been published imposes no obligation.

1.Public power is exercised only on a legal basis and within its limits.
2.A federal law, decree or regulation enters into force on publication in the Federal Gazette, and no sooner than the fifteenth day after publication, except where the act itself provides a shorter period for reasons stated in it.
3.Secret laws, secret decrees and secret regulations are prohibited. An act that has not been published imposes no obligation on any person.
4.The retroactive operation of a law is prohibited, except where it is favourable to the person concerned.

Political pluralism

Parties are free, and no party may hold a leading role in the State or in the economy.

1.Parties, trade unions, cooperative federations and associations are formed freely, govern themselves democratically, and publish their statutes, their membership figures and their accounts.
2.No party holds a leading role in the State, in the economy, in the armed forces, in education or in any enterprise, and no such role is established by law.
3.Membership of a party is no condition of appointment to public office, of admission to education, or of employment.
4.A party is dissolved only by judgment of the Constitutional Court, on proof that it pursues by force the abolition of democratic government or of the equal dignity of persons, and the judgment states the acts proved.

Social ownership

Land, water, forests, energy and the principal means of production are held in social ownership.

1.The land, the subsoil, the waters, the forests, the sources of energy, the railway and telecommunication networks and the principal means of production are held in social ownership.
2.Social ownership is administered by enterprises, cooperatives, states and units of local self-government, on the terms and for the purposes a federal law establishes.
3.Property in the categories named in paragraph 1 is inalienable. Other social property is transferred only under a law adopted by two thirds of the members of each chamber, by public procedure, and with the price and the counterparty published.
4.Personal property, the dwelling occupied by its holder, savings, and the tools of a trade are guaranteed.

Territory

The territory cannot be ceded or leased, the capital is Talmeru, and the Valmeza crossing stays open.

1.The territory of the Republic comprises its land, inland waters, territorial sea, seabed, subsoil and airspace.
2.The territory is inalienable. No part of it is ceded, leased to the exclusive use of a foreign power, or made the site of a foreign military installation.
3.The capital of the Republic is Talmeru. The seat of an organ of the State may be fixed elsewhere by law.
4.The eastern frontier crossing at Valmeza, which faces the Fluidian gateway at Corvaluri and has been open since 1989, is kept open for movement and exchange in peace and in war.

The states

Five states, each with an assembly, a government and courts, and boundaries changed only by referendum.

1.The Republic is formed of the states of Vetruna, Osreni, Kadrena, Velmar and Sarnovein.
2.Each state has an assembly elected by its residents, a government answerable to that assembly, and courts of first and second instance, constituted under its own statute and in conformity with this Constitution.
3.The statute of a state enters into force on approval by the Federal Assembly. Approval is refused only for conflict with this Constitution, and the refusal states the conflicting provision.
4.The boundaries of a state are altered only by a law adopted by two thirds of the members of each chamber and confirmed by referendum in each state concerned.
5.Talmeru and its district are administered under federal law. Their residents elect a council of the district and are represented in both chambers on the footing of the residents of a state.

Competences of the Republic

The competences the Republic holds, and the rule that unassigned competences belong to it.

1.The Republic exercises the competences of foreign relations, defence, citizenship, frontier control, currency and banking, the federal budget and federal taxation, the planning of the economy, external exchange and external borrowing, the criminal law and its procedure, the civil and commercial law, the register of enterprises, the energy and railway networks, weights, measures and technical standards, the census and the public statistics, and the supervision of public integrity.
2.A competence which this Constitution assigns to no organ belongs to the Republic.
3.A competence of the Republic is exercised by a state where a federal law delegates it, and the delegation states its purpose, its duration and the resources that accompany it.

Competences of the states

What the states decide for themselves, and the rule that a state borrows only from the Republic.

1.A state exercises the competences of local administration, of urban and rural planning within its territory, of the state courts, of primary and secondary schooling within the federal framework, of local transport, of water supply and of housing management, and those a federal law delegates to it.
2.A state legislates within its competences, and its law is void in so far as it conflicts with a federal law.
3.A state raises the charges a federal law authorises. It levies no other charge.
4.A state contracts a loan only from the Republic. Article 20 applies to an obligation of a state to a lender outside the Democratic Socialist Bloc.

Federal supervision

How the Republic acts when a state fails to apply federal law, and the limits on that action.

1.Where a state organ fails to apply this Constitution or a federal law, the Federal Government requires it to remedy the failure, stating the provision concerned and a period for compliance.
2.Where the failure persists, the Federal Assembly may authorise the Federal Government to exercise the competence concerned for a stated period of no more than two years, renewable once by a further authorisation. The authorisation names the officers who assume the competence and the acts that gave rise to it.
3.The state concerned may contest the measure before the Constitutional Court. The contest does not suspend the measure, and the Court decides within sixty days.
4.Supervision under this Article dissolves no state assembly, postpones no election in a state, and suspends no right declared in Title II.
5.A measure under this Article is published in full, with the reasons for it, on the day it is taken.

Equality of the states

The states are equal, and federal spending is distributed to equalise provision between them.

1.The states are equal before this Constitution and equal in the chamber of the states.
2.Federal expenditure is distributed so that provision in the categories named in Title III reaches an equivalent level in every state, and the accounts of that distribution are published by state each year.
3.No state receives a privilege in law, in the plan or in the budget by reason of its population, its output or the party governing it.

Language

Iosmen is official throughout, and a state language is official beside it within that state.

1.Iosmen is the official language of the Republic.
2.A language named in the statute of a state is official beside Iosmen within that state, in its assembly, its administration and its courts.
3.Every organ deals with a person in a language that person understands, and provides interpretation and translation without charge.
4.Federal laws are published in Iosmen and in each state language, and the versions have equal force.

Citizenship

One citizenship, no deprivation of it, and Bloc residents treated on the footing of residents.

1.There is a single citizenship of the Republic. The states confer no citizenship of their own.
2.No person is deprived of citizenship, and no act of an organ renders a person stateless.
3.Citizenship is acquired and renounced on the conditions a federal law establishes, applied without distinction on any of the grounds named in Title II.
4.A resident of another member state of the Democratic Socialist Bloc enters, remains, works, studies and receives care in the Republic on the footing of a resident of the Republic.

Belief

No established religion, freedom of belief, and public money for a religious building only as heritage.

1.The Republic establishes no religion, and its organs are separate from religious communities.
2.Freedom of belief, of practice and of change of belief is guaranteed, and no privilege or disadvantage follows in law from a belief held or refused.
3.Public funds are applied to a religious community only for the conservation of a building entered in the register of protected monuments, and the grant is published.

Public integrity

Public office is exercised for its purpose alone, declarations are published, and corruption carries no time limit.

1.A public function is exercised for the purpose for which it is conferred, and for no private advantage of the holder or of a person connected with the holder.
2.Every holder of public function declares, on taking office, each year in office and on leaving office, the assets, income, interests and obligations of the holder and of the members of the holder's household. The declarations are published.
3.Corruption in public function, and the diversion of public funds, are offences defined by federal law. No amnesty, pardon or commutation applies to them, and prosecution for them is subject to no time limit.
4.A holder of public function is removed on a finding of the Public Integrity Office under Title IX, subject to appeal to the courts.
5.A person who reports conduct falling under this Article is protected in employment, in tenure of office and in person, and the protection continues regardless of the outcome of the report.

Publicity

Sittings, contracts and accounts are published, and an unpublished contract binds no public body.

1.The sittings of the Federal Assembly, of a state assembly and of a local council are public, and their records are published.
2.A contract to which a public body is party is published in full, with the counterparty, the price, the procedure followed and the officers who approved it. A contract that has not been published creates no obligation on the public body.
3.Every person has access to the documents held by an organ. A refusal states its reasons, cites the provision relied on and is reviewable by the courts.
4.The accounts of the Republic, of each state and of each public enterprise are published in money and in physical units.

The Democratic Socialist Bloc

Founding member of the Bloc, on conditions, with Bloc acts taking effect only on enactment here.

1.The Republic is a founding member of the Democratic Socialist Bloc, established at Lindoma in 1994.
2.The Republic remains in the union for as long as the union rests on social ownership, ecological limits, democratic self-government and the equality of its members.
3.An act of an organ of the Bloc takes effect in the Republic on enactment by the Federal Assembly, except where Title XII provides otherwise for the duration of the rescue settlement.
4.Frontiers between member states are open, and the Republic concludes and maintains the agreements that keep them so.
5.Exchange within the Bloc is settled in goods, labour, technique and knowledge, recorded in physical units through a single external account.

Foreign relations

No military alliance, no unpublished treaty annex, and no submission to arbitration against a company.

1.The Republic is a member of no military alliance and permits no foreign military installation on its territory.
2.The Republic recognises no territorial acquisition obtained by force.
3.A treaty is ratified by a law of the Federal Assembly and published in full before ratification. An annex, protocol or understanding that has not been published imposes no obligation on the Republic.
4.No treaty submits the Republic to a foreign or arbitral jurisdiction in a dispute with a company, requires that a sector be opened to enterprises operating for profit, or restricts the revision of this Constitution. A commitment of that kind is void.

External borrowing

Borrowing outside the Bloc needs a two-thirds law and a referendum, and a breach creates no debt.

1.The Republic, a state, a unit of local self-government, a public enterprise and the Bank of the Republic contract no loan, credit, guarantee or other obligation from a lender outside the Democratic Socialist Bloc except under a law adopted by two thirds of the members of each chamber and confirmed by referendum.
2.The law submitted to referendum states the sum, the lender, the term, the charge, the purpose and the schedule of repayment. A loan differing from those particulars is void.
3.An obligation contracted in breach of this Article creates no debt of the Republic, of a state or of any public body, and the officers who contracted it are personally liable.
4.The Republic accepts no financial conditionality relating to its internal affairs, the form of its government, its ownership settlement or its provision under Title III.
5.Title XII applies to the obligations contracted between 2008 and 2016 and to the settlement made upon them.

Ecological limits

Resource use is capped in physical units, and exhausting a resource beyond recovery is prohibited.

1.The use of land, water, air, forest, fishery and mineral resources is subject to ceilings set in physical units by federal law and published each planning period.
2.An enterprise, a state and a unit of local self-government operate within the ceilings applying to them, and report their use in physical units.
3.Resources are used so that their availability to the generations to come is preserved, and an act that exhausts a resource beyond its recovery is prohibited.

Symbols

The flag, the arms, the seal and the anthem are described by an organic law.

1.The flag, the arms, the seal and the anthem of the Republic are described by an organic law.
2.A state uses its own flag and arms beside those of the Republic.

Title II · Rights, liberties and duties

Articles 23 to 74

Chapter I: General provisions

Persons protected

Who holds these rights, whom they bind, and what a person keeps while deprived of liberty.

1.The rights declared in this Title are held by every person in the territory of the Republic, except where a provision confines a right to citizens.
2.These rights bind every federal organ, every state, every unit of local self-government, every court and every public enterprise.
3.A right declared in this Title applies between private persons to the extent that its subject matter allows.
4.A person deprived of liberty keeps every right this Title declares, apart from those the deprivation itself removes.

Equality

Equality before the law, a list of prohibited grounds, and the conditions for advancement measures.

1.All persons are equal before the law and are entitled to its equal protection.
2.No person is favoured or disadvantaged by reason of ancestry, sex, colour, language, state of residence, place of birth, belief, political opinion, trade union activity, property, family circumstances, health, disability, age or sexual orientation.
3.A measure to advance a group which a published report shows to be disadvantaged is permitted where it serves equality, goes no further than that purpose requires and states the period for which it runs.
4.Women and men have equal rights in the family, in work, in remuneration, in education and in public office.

Enforcement of the rights

Civil rights work in court on their own, and social rights work to the extent of resources available.

1.The rights declared in Chapters II and III are enforceable before any court without implementing legislation.
2.The rights declared in Chapter IV are enforceable to the extent of the resources available to the Republic. Each of them has a content, established under Title III, which no law and no plan may reduce.
3.Where a court finds that the content described in paragraph 2 has been reduced, it says so, states what resources were available, and orders the organ concerned to restore the level within a stated period.
4.The Republic publishes each year the level attained for each right declared in Chapter IV, by state, in physical units and in money.
5.The organ which relies on a shortage of resources proves the shortage.

Limitation of rights

A right is limited only by law, only so far as the purpose requires, and its essential content stays intact.

1.A right is limited only by a law, only for a purpose this Constitution recognises, and only to the extent that the purpose requires.
2.A limitation leaves the essential content of the right intact.
3.A law which limits a right is general in its terms, names the right limited and states the purpose.
4.Articles 30, 31, 35 and 41 admit no limitation, and no emergency suspends them.

Remedy

Every infringed right has a remedy, free where means are short, and delay is itself compensable.

1.Every person whose right is infringed has a remedy before the courts.
2.Court fees and legal assistance are provided without charge to a person whose means are insufficient, and the insufficiency is established by declaration.
3.A person may apply to the Constitutional Court where the ordinary remedies have been exhausted, or where they would give no effective relief.
4.Proceedings are decided within a reasonable time, and delay attributable to the courts or to the administration is itself a ground of compensation.

Liability of public bodies

Public bodies answer for damage, recover from officers who acted with intent, and compensate wrongful conviction.

1.The Republic, a state, a unit of local self-government and a public enterprise answer for damage their organs cause in the exercise of public function.
2.The public body recovers the sum from the officer who acted with intent or with gross negligence, by proceedings which are public.
3.A person convicted in error or detained unlawfully is compensated, and the compensation is not conditional on proof of fault in any officer.

Other instruments

These rights are read with the ratified instruments, and the wider protection prevails.

1.The rights declared in this Title are read consistently with the international instruments the Republic has ratified.
2.Where such an instrument gives a wider protection, the wider protection applies.
3.The ratification of an instrument reduces no right declared in this Title.

Chapter II: Personal rights and liberties

Life

The right to life, the death penalty abolished, and no removal to a state that would impose it.

1.Every person has the right to life.
2.The death penalty is abolished and shall not be reintroduced.
3.No person is extradited, expelled or otherwise removed to a state where that person would face the death penalty, torture, or treatment contrary to Article 31.

Integrity of the person

Physical and mental integrity, an absolute bar on torture, consent to treatment, and no forced labour.

1.The physical and mental integrity of the person is inviolable.
2.Torture, and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, are prohibited. No emergency, no order of a superior and no purpose of investigation justifies them.
3.A medical or scientific intervention is carried out with the free and informed consent of the person, and a federal law states the conditions in which consent is given for a person unable to give it.
4.Forced labour is prohibited. Work required of a sentenced person, service required during a declared emergency and civic service under Article 73 fall outside this prohibition.
5.The human body and its parts are not sold, and no person takes a profit from their transfer.

Liberty and security

Deprivation of liberty only by law, reasons given at once, a judge within forty-eight hours.

1.A person is deprived of liberty only in the cases a federal law defines and by the procedure it establishes.
2.A person arrested is informed at the moment of arrest, in a language that person understands, of the reasons for the arrest and of the right to a lawyer, to a doctor and to inform a person of their choice.
3.A person arrested is brought before a judge within forty-eight hours, and the judge orders release or detention by a reasoned decision.
4.Detention before judgment is exceptional, is reviewed every thirty days, and lasts no longer than the maximum a federal law sets for the offence charged.
5.Every place of detention is entered in a public register, and detention in a place outside that register is an offence for which no time limit runs.

Review of detention

A detained person, or another acting for them, may seek review within seventy-two hours, without a fee.

1.A person deprived of liberty, and any other person acting for them, may apply to a court for the review of the lawfulness of the detention.
2.The court hears the application within seventy-two hours and orders release where the detention has no lawful basis.
3.The application is made in any form, and no fee is charged for it.

Fair hearing

A public hearing before an independent court, equal access to the file, and reasons in the judgment.

1.Every person is entitled to a public hearing, within a reasonable time, before a court established by law, independent and impartial.
2.A hearing is closed only by a reasoned decision, for the protection of a child, of a victim of a sexual offence or of a witness in danger, and the judgment is pronounced publicly in every case.
3.The parties have equal access to the file, to the evidence and to the means of presenting their case.
4.A judgment states the reasons on which it rests, and an appeal lies to a higher court.
5.Proceedings are conducted in a language the party understands, with interpretation and translation provided without charge.

Limits of the criminal law

No offence without a prior law, no double punishment, and evidence from a breach of rights is inadmissible.

1.An act is punished only where a law in force at the time of the act defined it as an offence and stated the penalty.
2.A criminal law does not operate retroactively. A law which removes an offence or reduces a penalty applies to acts committed before it.
3.No person is tried or punished twice for the same act.
4.A penalty is personal, and no penalty of a perpetual character is imposed.
5.Every person is presumed innocent until a final judgment establishes guilt. The burden of proof rests on the prosecution, and a doubt is resolved in favour of the accused.
6.Evidence obtained by torture, by unlawful intrusion into the home or the communications of a person, or by any other breach of this Title, is inadmissible in any proceedings.

Rights of the defence

Notice of the accusation, a lawyer, confidential communication, and equal treatment of witnesses.

1.A person charged is informed promptly and in detail of the accusation, and is given the time and the facilities to prepare a defence.
2.A person charged chooses a lawyer, and a lawyer is provided without charge where the means of the person are insufficient.
3.Communication between a person and their lawyer is confidential, and no organ intercepts it.
4.A person charged examines the witnesses against them and obtains the attendance of witnesses on their behalf on the same conditions.
5.No person is compelled to give evidence against themselves or against a member of their household.

Private and family life

Private and family life, equal partners, equal children, and separation only by a court.

1.Every person has the right to respect for their private and family life.
2.Marriage and partnership are entered into with the free consent of the persons concerned, who are equal in rights and duties.
3.Children born outside marriage have the same rights as children born within it, and no document of the State records the distinction.
4.A child is separated from their family only by a decision of a court, on grounds a federal law defines, and the poverty of the household is no such ground.
5.The identity of a person, including the recorded sex and the name, is corrected on the application of the person, on the conditions a federal law establishes.

The home

The home is inviolable, entry needs a warrant, and entry without one is reviewed within a day.

1.The home is inviolable.
2.Entry, search or seizure is carried out on a judicial warrant which names the place, the object of the search and the period of its validity.
3.Entry without a warrant is lawful only to assist a person in danger, to stop an offence in progress, or on the consent of the occupant recorded in writing. A judge reviews the entry within twenty-four hours.
4.No entry takes place at night, except in the cases named in paragraph 3.

Correspondence and communications

Communications are secret, interception needs a judge, and blanket collection is prohibited.

1.Correspondence, telephone communication and electronic communication are secret.
2.Interception is ordered by a judge, for an offence a federal law names, for a stated period of no more than sixty days, renewable by a further reasoned order.
3.General or indiscriminate collection of communications or of traffic data is prohibited.
4.A person whose communications were intercepted is informed once the investigation closes, and where the investigation produced no charge, within one year of the end of the interception.

Personal data

Data are collected for a stated purpose, seen and corrected on request, and decisions are taken by a person.

1.Every person has the right to the protection of data relating to them.
2.Data are collected for a stated purpose, used for that purpose alone, kept for a stated period and then destroyed.
3.Every person has access to the data an organ or an enterprise holds on them, learns the source of the data and obtains the correction or the deletion of data which are inaccurate or held without basis.
4.A decision producing a legal effect on a person is taken by a person, and an automated process serves only to prepare it.
5.Data revealing belief, political opinion, trade union membership, health, sexual life or ethnic origin are processed only with the consent of the person concerned, or for medical care, or for statistics in a form which identifies no individual.

Prohibition of political policing

No file on a person for their opinions, the Directorate abolished, and its archives opened.

1.No organ collects, holds or processes information on a person by reason of the opinions of that person, of party membership, of trade union activity, of belief or of lawful association.
2.Bodies exercising the functions of the former Directorate of State Security are abolished and are re-established under no name.
3.The archives of that Directorate pass to the National Archive. Every person has access to the file kept on them and to the identity of those who informed on them, subject only to the protection from danger to life of persons still living.
4.A person who held a position in that Directorate is named in a public register, and a federal law states the offices from which such a person is barred and the period of the bar.

Movement and residence

Free movement and residence in any state, free exit and return, and no expulsion of a citizen.

1.Every person lawfully in the territory moves and settles freely within it, in any state, and no permit is required for residence in a state.
2.Every person leaves the territory freely and returns to it.
3.No citizen is expelled from the territory, and no citizen is deprived of the right to enter it.
4.Travel documents are issued on application and are refused only by a reasoned decision of a court.
5.The Republic maintains open frontiers with the member states of the Democratic Socialist Bloc, and seeks agreements to the same effect with other states.

Conscience and belief

Belief is held, changed and practised freely, is recorded by no organ, and its sincerity is not examined.

1.Every person holds, changes and practises a belief, alone or with others, in public or in private, and is free to hold none.
2.No person is required to declare a belief, and no organ records the belief of a person.
3.A person whose belief prevents the bearing of arms performs the civic service Article 73 provides.

Expression

Expression is free, censorship is prohibited, and insulting an office is an offence in no law.

1.Every person expresses and disseminates opinion and information freely, in any form and by any means.
2.Censorship is prohibited. No prior authorisation, deposit or licence is required for publication.
3.Liability for expression arises after publication alone, before the courts, and on grounds a federal law defines.
4.Insult to an organ of the State, to the Republic or to a holder of public function is an offence in no law, and a holder of public function proves damage as any other person does.
5.An offence of expression carries no penalty of imprisonment.

Information and the media

The media are free, ownership is public, and a journalist protects a source unless a court orders otherwise.

1.Every person seeks and receives information held by an organ, under Article 17.
2.The press, broadcasting and electronic media operate freely. The State holds no monopoly of any medium.
3.The ownership of a medium is public, and a federal law limits the concentration of media in the same hands.
4.Public broadcasting is governed by a council whose members are elected by the Federal Assembly by a majority of two thirds, and its budget is fixed for four years at a time.
5.A journalist protects the identity of a source, and disclosure is ordered only by a court, for the prevention of a danger to life.

Research, teaching and creation

Research, teaching and creation are free, and publicly funded results enter the knowledge commons.

1.Research, teaching and artistic creation are free.
2.The results of research conducted with public funds enter the knowledge commons and are published.
3.An institution of higher education governs itself, and its statutes are published.

Chapter III: Political rights

Assembly and demonstration

Peaceful assembly without authorisation, dispersal only for violence, and identifiable officers.

1.Every person assembles peacefully, without arms, and without prior authorisation.
2.A notice of a demonstration in a public place is given to the local authority, and the failure to give notice is no ground for dispersal.
3.A demonstration is dispersed only where violence occurs, by a reasoned decision of the senior officer present, recorded and published within seven days.
4.The use of force to disperse an assembly is proportionate, and every officer deployed is identifiable by a number visible at all times.

Association

Associations form freely, gain personality by registration, and are dissolved only by a court.

1.Every person forms an association, joins one, and leaves one at will.
2.An association acquires legal personality by entry in a public register, on the deposit of its statutes. Registration is refused only by a court.
3.An association is dissolved only by judgment of a court, on proof of acts which a federal law defines, and the judgment states the acts proved.
4.Armed associations, and associations organised on a military model, are prohibited.

The vote

Universal, equal, direct and secret voting from eighteen, with local voting for settled residents.

1.Every citizen of eighteen years votes in elections to the Federal Assembly, to the assembly of the state of residence and to the local council, and in referendums.
2.The vote is universal, equal, direct, secret and free.
3.A resident who is not a citizen votes in local elections after two years of residence.
4.The vote is neither compulsory nor rewarded, and the offer or acceptance of an advantage for a vote is an offence.
5.Voting is arranged for persons in hospital, in custody and abroad, and the arrangements are published before each election.

Eligibility and public office

Every citizen may stand, offices are filled by competition, and conviction for corruption bars a person.

1.Every citizen of eighteen years stands for election, subject to the incompatibilities this Constitution and a federal law establish.
2.Public office is open to every citizen on equal terms, and appointment is made by competition on published criteria.
3.A person convicted of an offence under Article 16(3) is barred from public office and from election for the period a federal law states, which runs from the completion of the sentence.
4.A holder of public function who takes up a paid position with a person who was party to a contract that holder approved commits an offence, for the period a federal law states.

Referendum and popular initiative

Referendums on demand, initiatives debated within ninety days, and no vote to reduce these rights.

1.A referendum is held on the demand of one twentieth of the electors, of one third of the members of either chamber, or of three state assemblies.
2.A proposal supported by one fortieth of the electors is placed before the Federal Assembly, which debates it and votes on it within ninety days.
3.A referendum decides no question concerning the rights declared in this Title, except to extend them.
4.The question put is single, is drafted in ordinary words, and is approved as to its clarity by the Constitutional Court before the vote.

Petition and complaint

Petitions answered within thirty days, complaints kept confidential, and reprisal made an offence.

1.Every person petitions an organ, alone or with others, and receives a reasoned reply within thirty days.
2.Every person complains to the Public Integrity Office or to the Ombudsman, and the identity of the complainant is disclosed to no person or organ without the consent of the complainant.
3.A reprisal against a person for a petition or a complaint is an offence.

Asylum

Asylum for the persecuted, no return to danger, and no funding of foreign bodies to stop movement.

1.The Republic grants asylum to a person persecuted for their activity in favour of democracy, social liberation, national liberation, peace, human rights or the protection of the environment, and to a person who meets the conditions of the instruments the Republic has ratified.
2.No person seeking asylum is returned to a frontier where their life or liberty would be at risk.
3.An applicant works, studies and receives care from the day the application is registered.
4.The Republic funds, equips and trains no foreign body whose function is the prevention of movement, and undertakes in no agreement to conduct asylum procedures on the territory of another state.

Citizens abroad

Consular protection abroad, the vote retained, and extradition of a citizen tightly conditioned.

1.The Republic represents its citizens before other states and provides them with consular assistance.
2.A citizen abroad votes and retains every right this Title declares which residence does not condition.
3.Extradition of a citizen is granted only under a treaty, only for an offence which is an offence in the Republic, and only on an assurance that the sentence is served in the Republic.

Residents who are not citizens

Residents who are not citizens hold these rights, and collective expulsion is prohibited.

1.A resident who is not a citizen holds every right declared in this Title, apart from those Articles 49(1) and 50(1) confine to citizens.
2.A resident of another member state of the Democratic Socialist Bloc holds, in addition, the rights Article 14(4) confers.
3.A resident who is not a citizen is expelled only by a decision of a court, on grounds a federal law defines, with the right to be heard and to appeal, and the appeal suspends the expulsion.
4.Collective expulsion is prohibited.

Chapter IV: Economic, social and cultural rights

Work

The right to work, full employment pursued through the plan, and dismissal reviewable by a court.

1.Every person has the right to work and to choose an occupation freely.
2.The Republic and the states pursue full employment through the plan, and publish each year the number of persons seeking work, by state and by occupation.
3.A person who loses employment receives a payment, training and a place in work within the period a federal law states.
4.Dismissal takes place only on a ground a federal law defines, is notified with its reasons in writing, and is reviewable by a court which may order reinstatement.
5.Work performed by a person under eighteen is limited by federal law, and work which endangers health, safety or schooling is prohibited at every age.

Conditions of work

Safe conditions, limited hours, paid leave, refusal of dangerous work, and unannounced inspection.

1.Every worker has the right to conditions which protect health and safety, to a limit on working hours fixed by federal law, to a weekly rest period and to annual leave with pay.
2.A worker refuses work which presents a serious and immediate danger, and suffers no disadvantage for the refusal.
3.Work of an arduous or unhealthy character carries a reduced working time and an earlier pension, on the conditions a federal law establishes.
4.The inspection of workplaces is carried out by an inspectorate which enters premises without notice.

Remuneration

Pay according to the work done, equal pay for equal work, and a published ratio inside each enterprise.

1.Every worker is remunerated according to the quantity, the quality and the social usefulness of the work performed.
2.Equal work is remunerated equally, and a difference by reason of any ground named in Article 24(2) is prohibited.
3.A minimum remuneration is fixed by federal law, is sufficient for the needs Title III lists, and is revised each year.
4.The ratio between the highest and the lowest remuneration in a public enterprise is fixed by federal law and is published for each enterprise.

Trade unions and the strike

Unions form freely, an agreement covers every worker in its scope, the strike is guaranteed, the lock-out is not.

1.Workers form trade unions, join them and leave them freely, and a union is subject to no authorisation.
2.Trade unions bargain collectively, and an agreement concluded applies to every worker in its scope.
3.The right to strike is guaranteed. The workers concerned define the interests the strike defends.
4.A minimum service is maintained during a strike in health care, in water and energy supply, in fire and rescue and in the care of persons unable to care for themselves. The extent of the service is agreed with the union, and in default of agreement is fixed by a court.
5.The lock-out is prohibited. The replacement of striking workers is prohibited.

Participation in the enterprise

The workers elect a council that takes part in managing the enterprise and is heard before closure.

1.The workers of an enterprise elect a council which participates in its management, on the conditions Title III and a federal law establish.
2.The council receives the accounts, the plan and the investment proposals of the enterprise, and its opinion is recorded in the decision.
3.A decision to close an enterprise or to reduce its workforce is taken only after the council has been heard and an alternative has been examined in public.

Work on one's own account

Work on one's own account is a right, registered on declaration, and past activity is regularised without penalty.

1.Every person works on their own account, alone, with the members of their household, or with the number of employees a federal law permits.
2.Such work is carried on by entry in a public register, and the entry is made on declaration, without charge and within seven days.
3.A person working on their own account holds the tools, the stock and the premises of the activity, and holds no property in the categories Article 6(1) names.
4.A person working on their own account has the rights declared in Articles 57, 62 and 63, and contributes to the social funds on the terms a federal law establishes.
5.An activity carried on without entry in the register is regularised on declaration, and no penalty is imposed for the earlier activity and no contribution falling due before the declaration is claimed.

Social security

One public social security system, its funds held apart, and benefits withdrawn only on appealable reasons.

1.Every person is covered by a system of social security which provides for sickness, accident, disability, maternity, the care of children, old age, the loss of employment and the death of a person on whom the household depended.
2.The system is public, unified and financed by contributions and by the budget. Its funds are held apart from the budget and are applied to no other purpose.
3.A pension is revised each year by reference to the cost of the goods and services Title III lists.
4.A benefit is refused or withdrawn only by a reasoned decision, and the appeal suspends the withdrawal.

Health

Health care free at the point of use, equal between the states, and payment to staff made an offence.

1.Every person has the right to the protection of health and to health care.
2.Health care is provided by a public service, free of charge at the point of use, and is available in every state at an equivalent standard.
3.Medicines on the list a federal law establishes are supplied free of charge, and the list is extended at each planning period.
4.A payment to a person employed in the health service, made for care which the service provides, is an offence under Article 16(3) whether it is demanded or offered.
5.Care is refused to no person by reason of citizenship, residence status or means.

Housing

A dwelling of adequate standard, allocated from a public list, and eviction only where another is available.

1.Every person has the right to a dwelling of adequate size, in good repair, with water, drainage, heating and electricity.
2.The states and the units of local self-government hold the housing stock, allocate dwellings by published criteria and in the order of a public list, and publish the allocations made.
3.A person is evicted only by a decision of a court and only where another dwelling is available to them.
4.A dwelling held vacant beyond the period a federal law states is allocated by the local authority, and the holder is heard before the allocation.

Education

Education free at every level, in the languages of Article 13, with maintenance grants for higher study.

1.Every person has the right to education.
2.Education is free of charge at every level, including materials, meals and transport, and is compulsory to the age a federal law fixes.
3.Instruction is given in Iosmen and in the language of the state under Article 13, and a pupil whose first language is neither receives support in the language of instruction.
4.Admission to higher education is by published criteria, and a place carries a maintenance grant sufficient for the needs Title III lists.
5.Private instruction supplements the public system, is licensed, follows the published curriculum and receives no public funds.

Children and young persons

The interest of the child prevails, the child is heard, and violence against children is prohibited.

1.A child is protected in their development, and the interest of the child prevails in every decision concerning them.
2.A child is heard in any proceedings concerning them, in a manner appropriate to their age.
3.Violence against a child is prohibited, including in the family, in the school and in institutions.
4.A child without parental care is placed with a family, and institutional placement is used only where no family placement is available.

The family and maternity

The family is protected in whatever form, parental leave is paid, and dismissal during it is prohibited.

1.The family is protected, in whatever form the persons composing it have chosen.
2.Maternity and paternity leave are granted with pay, and a period of the leave is reserved to each parent.
3.Places in nurseries and in pre-school education are provided free of charge from the end of the leave.
4.No employment is terminated during pregnancy or during parental leave.

Older persons and persons with disability

Pensions, care and participation for older persons, and independence, equipment and access for disabled persons.

1.Older persons have the right to a pension sufficient for the needs Title III lists, to care, and to participation in the life of the community.
2.Persons with disability have the right to the support, the equipment and the personal assistance which enable them to live independently and to work.
3.Buildings open to the public, transport, communications and the services of every organ are accessible, and the programme of adaptation is published with its dates.
4.A person with disability is placed in an institution only with their consent or, where consent cannot be given, by decision of a court reviewed each year.

Culture and knowledge

Cultural life is open to all, public knowledge is held in common, and state languages are supported.

1.Every person takes part in cultural life and has access to the cultural heritage.
2.Knowledge produced with public funds is held in common and is available without charge.
3.The Republic protects the languages, the customs and the heritage of the peoples of the states, and supports their use in publication, in broadcasting and in schooling.
4.An author has the right to be named as the author of their work and to a remuneration a federal law establishes.

The environment

An environment that does not damage health, standing to sue without a personal interest, and the polluter pays.

1.Every person has the right to an environment which does not damage health, and the duty to protect it.
2.Every person has access to environmental information, takes part in the procedures which decide a project, and applies to a court against an act which damages the environment, without showing a personal interest.
3.A project which may have a significant effect on the environment is assessed before it is authorised, and the assessment is published with the decision.
4.The person who causes damage to the environment bears the cost of the repair, and the obligation passes to any successor in the activity.

Guaranteed provision

The listed goods and services are free at the point of use, and the list may be cut only on published evidence.

1.The goods and services which Title III lists are supplied to every person free of charge at the point of use.
2.The list is extended at each planning period, and is reduced only by a law adopted by two thirds of the members of each chamber, on a finding that the resources are exhausted, which is published with the evidence.
3.A reduction under paragraph 2 lasts no longer than one planning period, and the list is restored where the resources become available.

Chapter V: Duties

Duties of the person

Observe the Constitution, contribute according to means, and protect what is held in common.

1.Every person observes this Constitution and the laws of the Republic, and respects the rights of others.
2.Every person contributes to public expenditure according to their means, and taxation is progressive.
3.Every person protects the environment, the cultural heritage and the property held in common.
4.A duty declared in this Title is enforced only through a law which states the duty, the conduct required and the consequence of failure.

Defence and civic service

Participation in defence, with civic service for those whose belief prevents bearing arms.

1.Every citizen participates in the defence of the Republic, on the conditions Title X establishes.
2.A citizen whose belief prevents the bearing of arms performs a civic service of the same duration, under civilian direction, in health care, in rescue, in the care of persons or in the protection of the environment.
3.The sincerity of the belief declared is examined by no organ.
4.Service beyond the frontier is performed only by a person who has consented to it in writing.

Public funds

Whoever administers public funds accounts for them and files the declaration, office or not.

1.Every person who administers public funds accounts for them, in the form and at the intervals a federal law establishes.
2.The obligation of Article 16(2) attaches to every person who administers public funds, whether or not that person holds public office.

Title III · The economic and social order

Articles 75 to 115

Chapter I: Foundations

Objectives

The economy serves provision, employment, equal development between the states and the environment.

1.The economy of the Republic is directed to the provision of the needs of the population, to full employment, to the equal development of the states and to the protection of the environment.
2.The accumulation of private wealth from the labour of others is no purpose of the economic order and is supported by no organ.
3.The Republic measures the attainment of these objectives each year, in physical units and in money, and publishes the measurement by state.

Forms of ownership

Four forms of property, no fifth created by law, and cooperative property kept undivided.

1.Property in the Republic takes the forms of social ownership, cooperative ownership, personal property and the property of a person working on their own account.
2.Social ownership covers the categories Article 6(1) names, and such further undertakings as a federal law transfers to it.
3.Cooperative ownership belongs to the members of the cooperative in common, and is neither divided among them nor sold to a person outside it.
4.A form of ownership other than those named in paragraph 1 is created by no law.

Administration of social ownership

Social property is held in usufruct for a stated purpose, and cannot be sold or mortgaged.

1.Social property is administered by the enterprise, the cooperative, the state or the unit of local self-government to which it is entrusted, for the purposes the entrustment states.
2.The administrator holds the property in usufruct, applies the product of it to the purposes of the entrustment, and neither sells it, mortgages it nor grants security over it.
3.An entrustment is withdrawn by the organ that made it, by a reasoned decision, where the property is applied to another purpose or is allowed to deteriorate.
4.An act contrary to paragraph 2 is void, and the officers who executed it are personally liable for the value.

Land

Land is granted for use on long terms, and the sale, lease for gain or mortgage of a grant is void.

1.Land is held in social ownership and is granted for use.
2.A grant of agricultural land is made to a cooperative, to a household or to a person working the land, for a term of no less than thirty years, renewable, and passes on death to a person continuing the use.
3.A grant of land for a dwelling is made to the household occupying it, for an indefinite term.
4.A grant is withdrawn only for a purpose the plan states, by a decision of a court, and against compensation for the improvements the holder has made.
5.The sale, the lease for gain and the mortgage of a grant are void.

Natural resources

The subsoil, waters, forests and energy sources are worked by public enterprises, with no concessions.

1.The subsoil, the waters, the forests, the fisheries and the sources of energy belong to the Republic and are exploited by public enterprises.
2.No concession over these resources is granted to a person outside the public sector.
3.The extraction of a mineral is authorised only within the ceilings Article 88 fixes, and the authorisation states the quantity, the term and the works of restoration required at the end of it.

Cooperatives

Cooperatives govern themselves, one vote to each member, and their assets pass on to another cooperative.

1.Cooperatives are formed freely in production, in agriculture, in crafts, in retail supply, in housing, in transport and in credit.
2.A cooperative governs itself by the vote of its members, one vote to each member, and elects and dismisses its officers.
3.A cooperative admits members on the conditions its statutes state, and expels a member only by a decision reviewable by a court.
4.A cooperative is dissolved by its members or by a court. Its assets pass to another cooperative in the same activity, or in default to the unit of local self-government.

Own-account activity

Own-account work is open outside the reserved sectors, with a uniform ceiling on employees.

1.A person working on their own account under Article 61 carries on any activity a federal law has not reserved to the public sector or to cooperatives.
2.The activities reserved are listed in that law and comprise the categories Article 6(1) names, banking, insurance, the supply of energy, the operation of the railway and telecommunication networks, health care and schooling.
3.The number of employees a person working on their own account may engage is fixed by federal law and is the same throughout the Republic.
4.The income of such a person is taxed on the same progressive scale as the income of a worker.

Excluded markets

No market in the means of production, land, dwellings, health care, schooling or public knowledge.

1.There is no market in the categories of property Article 6(1) names, in land, in dwellings, in health care, in schooling or in knowledge produced with public funds.
2.A contract which creates such a market is void.
3.An enterprise operating for profit is admitted to no sector named in paragraph 1, whether by concession, by delegation of a public function or by any other arrangement.

Guaranteed provision

The law lists what is guaranteed free, and the plan allocates for that list before anything else.

1.A federal law lists the goods and services supplied free of charge at the point of use under Article 71, and states for each the standard of quantity and quality guaranteed.
2.The list comprises health care, schooling and its materials, water for domestic use, public transport within a state, and the medicines Article 63(3) covers.
3.The plan allocates the resources the list requires before it allocates resources to any other purpose.
4.The Republic reports each year on the standard attained for each item, by state.

Chapter II: The plan

The plan

A four-year plan, revised yearly, expressed in money and in physical units where ceilings apply.

1.The economy is planned. The plan runs for four years and is revised each year.
2.The plan is expressed in money, and in physical units for the categories Article 88 names.
3.The plan binds the federal organs, the states, the units of local self-government and the public enterprises. It has the force of a federal law.

Preparation

The draft plan is published six months ahead with the proposals it accepted and refused.

1.The Federal Planning Office prepares the draft plan on the proposals of the enterprises, of the states and of the units of local self-government.
2.The draft is published six months before it is adopted, with the proposals received and the reasons for the choices made between them.
3.The workers' councils, the trade unions, the cooperative federations and the state assemblies deliver opinions on the draft, which are published with it.
4.A public consultation is held in every state, and the record of it is published.

Adoption

The Assembly adopts the plan, and neither chamber may adopt one that underfunds the guaranteed list.

1.The Federal Assembly adopts the plan by a law, on the proposal of the Federal Government.
2.The chamber of the states votes separately on the allocations to each state, and a rejection returns those allocations to the Federal Government for a fresh proposal.
3.A plan which allocates less than the list under Article 83 requires is adopted by neither chamber.

Content

The plan states resources, allocations, investments, responsible organs, deadlines and a reserve.

1.The plan states the resources available, the allocations to each purpose, the investments to be made, the output expected of each branch and the allocations to each state.
2.The plan states, for each allocation, the organ responsible and the date by which the result is to be attained.
3.The plan states the reserve held against failure of output, which is no less than one twentieth of the total.

Ceilings in physical units

Physical ceilings for energy, water, timber, fish, listed minerals and emissions, published quarterly.

1.Ceilings in physical units are fixed for energy, for water abstraction, for timber, for fish taken, for the minerals a federal law lists, and for the emissions Article 21 covers.
2.A ceiling binds the plan, the budget and every enterprise, and is exceeded by no allocation.
3.The Federal Planning Office publishes each quarter the use recorded against each ceiling, by state and by enterprise.
4.Where a ceiling is exceeded, the Office suspends the authorisations which caused the excess and reports to the Federal Assembly within thirty days.

Categories planned in money

What is planned in money, and the standing duty to examine extending physical planning further.

1.Resources for which no ceiling is fixed under Article 88 are planned in money.
2.The Federal Assembly examines at each planning period whether further categories are to be planned in physical units, hears the Federal Planning Office and the state assemblies, and publishes its decision with the reasons for it.
3.The examination under paragraph 2 is held whether or not a proposal has been made, and the failure to hold it is reported by the Court of Accounts.

The Federal Planning Office

The Planning Office prepares and monitors the plan, publishes contested findings, and takes no instruction.

1.The Federal Planning Office prepares the plan, monitors its execution and verifies the accounts of enterprises on their premises.
2.Its director is elected by the Federal Assembly by a majority of two thirds, for six years, and is dismissed only for an offence under Article 16(3) or for incapacity established by a court.
3.The Office publishes its findings in full, including those which the Federal Government has contested.
4.The Office receives no instruction on the content of a finding.

Revision

The plan is revised by law, and no revision may cut the guaranteed list.

1.The plan is revised each year by a law, and the revision states what has changed and why.
2.A revision which reduces an allocation to a state below the level Article 12(2) requires is adopted by two thirds of the members of each chamber.
3.A revision reduces no allocation to the list under Article 83.

Publication of the accounts

Quarterly accounts of the plan, an annual audit, and the naming of misapplied allocations.

1.The accounts of the plan are published each quarter, in money and in the physical units of Article 88.
2.The Court of Accounts audits the execution of the plan and publishes its report within four months of the end of the year.
3.The report names the allocations which were not applied to their stated purpose and the officers responsible for them.

Chapter III: Enterprises

The public enterprise

A public enterprise is created by law, keeps its own accounts and is entered in a public register.

1.A public enterprise is established by a federal law or by a law of a state, which states its purpose, the property entrusted to it and the organ to which it reports.
2.A public enterprise has legal personality, keeps its own accounts and answers for its obligations with the property entrusted to it.
3.Every public enterprise is entered in a public register, which records its purpose, its officers, its accounts and the support it has received.

Self-management

The workers elect a council which runs the enterprise, meets in public and can be recalled.

1.The workers of a public enterprise manage it through a council which they elect by secret ballot, for two years, from among themselves.
2.The council adopts the plan of the enterprise within the federal plan, approves the accounts, decides the organisation of the work, fixes the internal scale of remuneration within Article 58 and decides the use of the part of the product which remains to the enterprise.
3.The council meets in public, publishes its decisions and reports to the workers at intervals of no more than three months.
4.A worker recalls a member of the council on the demand of one fifth of the workers and the vote of a majority of them.

The director

The council selects the director by competition, directs the director and may dismiss the director.

1.The council selects the director of the enterprise by public competition and ranks the candidates.
2.The director executes the decisions of the council, is answerable to it and is dismissed by it.
3.The remuneration of the director is published, and falls within the ratio Article 58(4) fixes.

Enterprises of federal importance

For listed enterprises the ministry appoints from the council's ranking and must publish its reasons.

1.In an enterprise entered on the list a federal law establishes, the responsible ministry appoints the director from among the candidates the council has ranked under Article 95(1).
2.Where the ministry appoints a candidate other than the one ranked first, it publishes its reasons within seven days.
3.The list is reviewed by the Federal Assembly at each planning period, and an enterprise is entered on it only where the interruption of its output would affect the supply of energy, of water, of transport, of medicines or of food throughout the Republic.
4.The council of an enterprise on the list retains every power Article 94(2) confers, and may demand the dismissal of the director by the vote of two thirds of its members, which the ministry executes within thirty days.

Accounts

Quarterly accounts in money and physical units, and no allocation until they are published.

1.A public enterprise publishes its accounts each quarter, in money and in the physical units of Article 88.
2.The accounts state the support received, the contracts concluded above the value a federal law fixes, and the remuneration of the director and of the senior staff.
3.An enterprise which fails to publish receives no allocation from the plan until it has published.

Support

Support is published with amounts, terms and names, and a ceiling on it is left to a law not yet passed.

1.Support from public funds to an enterprise is granted by a reasoned decision of the responsible ministry, published within seven days with the amount, the term, the conditions and the names of the officers who granted it.
2.The decision states the losses which occasioned the support and the measures by which the enterprise is to end them.
3.The Federal Planning Office reports each year on the support granted, enterprise by enterprise, and states which enterprises have received support in each of the preceding three years.
4.A federal law may fix a ceiling on support and a maximum period for which it is granted.

Reorganisation and dissolution

An enterprise that cannot meet its obligations is reorganised or dissolved after its council is heard.

1.An enterprise which cannot meet its obligations is reorganised or dissolved by a decision of the organ that established it, taken after the council has been heard.
2.The workers of an enterprise dissolved are placed in work under Article 56(3), and the placement precedes the dissolution.
3.The property entrusted to the enterprise returns to the organ that entrusted it.

100

Investment

Investment comes from the plan, retained funds and credit, and stays within the physical ceilings.

1.Investment is made from the plan, from the funds an enterprise retains and from credit granted by the Bank of the Republic.
2.An investment above the value a federal law fixes is published before it is decided, with its cost, its purpose and the alternatives examined.
3.No investment is decided which would exceed a ceiling under Article 88.

101

Prices

Some prices are fixed by the plan and published with their costs, the rest form freely.

1.Prices are fixed by the plan for the goods and services a federal law lists, and are formed freely for the remainder.
2.A price fixed by the plan is published, with the costs on which it rests.
3.The Federal Planning Office publishes each month the prices recorded in retail supply, by state, and reports where they diverge from the fixed prices.

102

Enterprises of foreign origin

A foreign enterprise operates only under a licence stating the technique transferred and the forum.

1.An enterprise established under the law of another state carries on activity in the Republic only under a licence granted by a federal law.
2.The licence states its term, the technique to be transferred to the knowledge commons, the conditions of labour and of environmental protection, and it names the courts of the Republic as the forum for any dispute arising from it.
3.A licence transfers no property in the categories Article 6(1) names, and confers no exclusive right.

Chapter IV: Public finance and currency

103

The federal budget

The budget is adopted before the year begins, holds every receipt, and defaults to monthly twelfths.

1.The federal budget is adopted each year by a law, before the year begins, and follows the plan.
2.The budget states every receipt and every expenditure. No fund is held outside it, apart from the social funds Article 62(2) establishes.
3.Where the budget is not adopted before the year begins, expenditure continues at one twelfth of the preceding budget each month, and no new expenditure is undertaken.

104

Budgets of the states

State budgets fit within the federal allocations and are checked before adoption.

1.Each state adopts its budget, within the allocations the federal plan makes to it and the charges Article 10(3) authorises.
2.A state budget is submitted to the Federal Ministry of Finance before adoption, which verifies its conformity with the plan and publishes its opinion.
3.Title XII applies to the supervision of state budgets for as long as it remains in force.

105

Taxation

Taxes only by law, progressive on income, and an exemption for a named person is void.

1.A tax is established, modified and abolished only by a federal law, which states the base, the rate, the person liable and the exemptions.
2.Taxation of income is progressive. Taxation of goods and services exempts the items on the list under Article 83.
3.An exemption granted to a named person or enterprise is void.

106

Currency

The vela is issued by the Bank alone, and obligations in a foreign currency are void.

1.The currency of the Republic is the vela, issued by the Bank of the Republic, which alone issues it.
2.Wages, pensions, prices in retail supply and obligations between persons are expressed in vela.
3.An obligation expressed in the currency of another state, or indexed to it, is void, except where a federal law permits it for exchange with a state outside the Democratic Socialist Bloc.
4.The Republic joins no monetary union and adopts the currency of no other state.

107

The Bank of the Republic

The Bank issues the currency, holds public accounts, and reports to the Assembly every quarter.

1.The Bank of the Republic issues the currency, holds the accounts of the Republic and of the states, and grants credit within the plan.
2.Its governor is elected by the Federal Assembly by a majority of two thirds, for six years, and reports to it every three months in public.
3.The Bank grants credit to no person outside the public sector and the cooperatives, except through the credit cooperatives a federal law establishes.
4.The Bank holds no obligation of a foreign state or of a foreign bank, except the working balances the external account requires.

108

Internal debt

Internal borrowing needs a law, is published monthly, and external borrowing stays under Article 20.

1.The Republic borrows within the Republic by an issue which a law of the Federal Assembly authorises, stating the sum, the term and the charge.
2.The total of such borrowing outstanding is published each month, with the schedule of repayment.
3.Article 20 governs every obligation to a lender outside the Democratic Socialist Bloc.

109

The Court of Accounts

The Court of Accounts audits every public body, publishes in full, and refers offences to prosecution.

1.The Court of Accounts audits the accounts of the Republic, of the states, of the units of local self-government, of the public enterprises and of the social funds.
2.Its members are elected by the Federal Assembly by a majority of two thirds, for nine years, and are not re-elected.
3.The Court publishes every report in full and refers to the prosecution every matter which discloses an offence under Article 16(3).
4.The Court receives no instruction and is refused access to no document.

110

Public contracts

Public contracts follow a published procedure, and one concluded outside it is void.

1.A contract of a public body is concluded by public procedure, on published criteria, and the award states the reasons for the choice.
2.A contract concluded without the procedure is void, and the officers who concluded it are personally liable.
3.Article 17(2) governs the publication of every public contract.
4.A person who has been convicted of an offence under Article 16(3), and an enterprise a person so convicted directs, is party to no public contract for the period a federal law states.

Chapter V: External economic relations

111

The external account

One external account, published monthly, and no foreign bank account without published authorisation.

1.Exchange with other states passes through a single external account, held by the Bank of the Republic and published each month.
2.The account records exchange in physical units and in money, by counterparty and by category of goods.
3.No organ, enterprise or cooperative holds an account with a foreign bank, except with the authorisation of the Bank of the Republic, published with its reasons.

112

Exchange within the Bloc

Bloc exchange is settled in goods and knowledge, and no unit of settlement circulates at home.

1.Exchange with a member state of the Democratic Socialist Bloc is settled in goods, labour, technique and knowledge, recorded in physical units.
2.A unit of settlement is used only where a counterparty requires it. It does not circulate in the Republic and is held by no resident.
3.The balance of each settlement period is carried forward as agreed deliveries, and the schedule of the deliveries is published.

113

Exchange with other states

Trade outside the Bloc runs through licensed public enterprises, and no weapon is exported.

1.Exchange with a state outside the Bloc is conducted by the public enterprises a federal law authorises.
2.An export is licensed, and the licence states the quantity, the counterparty and the price.
3.The export of a good on the list under Article 83 is licensed only where the supply within the Republic has been met.
4.The Republic exports no weapon and no component of a weapon.

114

Technique and knowledge

Incoming technique enters the knowledge commons, and no exclusive right over knowledge is accepted.

1.An agreement which brings technique into the Republic states the terms on which the technique enters the knowledge commons.
2.The Republic accepts no obligation which grants an exclusive right over knowledge, over a seed, over a medicine or over a method of treatment.
3.Knowledge received from another member state of the Bloc is passed to the enterprises of the Republic without charge.

115

Solidarity

Solidarity is given without conditions and received on the same terms, with both published.

1.The Republic contributes to the peoples in want the share of the plan a federal law fixes, in goods, labour, technique and training, recorded in physical units.
2.A contribution creates no debt on the recipient and has no condition touching the internal affairs, the form of government or the alignment of the recipient.
3.The Republic receives solidarity from the member states of the Bloc on the same terms, and publishes each year what it has received, from which state and in what form.
4.Solidarity received is applied to the purposes the plan states, and the Court of Accounts audits its application.

Title IV · The federal assembly

Articles 116 to 145

Chapter I: Composition and election

116

The Federal Assembly

Two chambers, seated at Talmeru, which legislate, adopt the plan and supervise the Government.

1.The Federal Assembly is the legislature of the Republic and consists of the Popular Chamber and the Chamber of the States.
2.The Federal Assembly legislates, adopts the plan and the budget, ratifies treaties, elects the holders of the offices this Constitution assigns to it, and supervises the Federal Government and the administration.
3.The seat of the Federal Assembly is at Talmeru.

117

The Popular Chamber

One hundred and fifty members, four years, proportional representation with no threshold.

1.The Popular Chamber has 150 members, elected for four years by the electors of the Republic.
2.Seats are allocated among the states in proportion to their populations at the last census, and no state has fewer than eight seats.
3.Members are elected by proportional representation from lists presented in each state, and seats are allocated to the lists in proportion to the votes cast.
4.No threshold of votes is required for the allocation of a seat.
5.An elector casts a preference for a candidate on the list chosen, and the preferences determine the order in which the candidates of that list take the seats.

118

The Chamber of the States

Thirty members, six from each state, elected on the same day and bound by no instruction.

1.The Chamber of the States has 30 members, six from each state, elected for four years by the electors of that state.
2.The election is held on the same day as the election to the Popular Chamber.
3.The six members of a state are elected on a single ballot, and each elector casts one vote.
4.Talmeru and its district elect two members, who sit with the members of the states and vote with them.
5.A member of the Chamber of the States holds a free mandate and receives instructions from no organ of the state.

119

Conduct of elections

An elected Electoral Commission runs the poll, and party finance is capped, published and audited.

1.Elections are conducted by an Electoral Commission whose members are elected by the Federal Assembly by a majority of two thirds, for six years.
2.The Commission registers the lists, publishes the register of electors, conducts the count in public and publishes the result by polling station within seventy-two hours.
3.A candidate, a party and any elector contests the conduct or the result of an election before the Constitutional Court, within fifteen days of the publication.
4.The expenditure of a party and of a candidate is limited by federal law, is published in full within thirty days of the poll, and is audited by the Court of Accounts.
5.A party receives public funds in proportion to the votes cast for it. A party accepts no donation from an enterprise, from a foreign person or from a source that is not named.

120

Term

Four-year terms, elections within sixty days, and extension only during an emergency or attack.

1.The term of each chamber runs for four years from the day of the first sitting.
2.Elections are held within sixty days of the end of the term.
3.The term is extended only during a state of emergency or an armed attack, by a law adopted by two thirds of the members of each chamber, for no more than six months at a time, and elections are held within sixty days of the end of the extension.
4.A chamber continues to sit until the chamber elected in its place has met.

121

Eligibility and incompatibility

Who may stand, which offices are incompatible, and the two-year bar on contracts after the mandate.

1.Every citizen who has the right to vote stands for election to either chamber.
2.The office of member is incompatible with a judicial office, with membership of the Federal Government, with the office of President of the Republic, with a position in the administration, with the direction of a public enterprise, and with membership of a state assembly or a state government.
3.A member who accepts an incompatible office loses the mandate on the day of the acceptance.
4.A member enters into no contract with a public body, and holds no paid position with a person party to such a contract, for the duration of the mandate and for two years after it.

122

The mandate

A member votes according to their own judgment and cannot be recalled by a party.

1.A member represents the whole people and votes according to their own judgment.
2.A member is bound by no instruction and is subject to no recall by a party.
3.A member who leaves the list on which they were elected keeps the seat and is recorded in the register of the chamber as unattached.

123

Immunity

No liability for votes or opinions, and otherwise a member is prosecuted like any other person.

1.A member answers in no proceedings for a vote cast or an opinion expressed in the exercise of the mandate.
2.A member is prosecuted, arrested and tried on the same terms as any other person.
3.Where an arrest is made, the chamber is informed within twenty-four hours and the reasons are published.
4.Paragraph 1 covers no statement which incites violence against a person or a group.

124

Interests of members

Members declare their assets and any interest in a vote, and non-declaration costs the seat.

1.Article 16(2) applies to every member, and the declaration is published on the day of the first sitting and each year thereafter.
2.A member declares before a vote any interest of the member, or of a member of the member's household, in the subject of the vote, and the declaration is recorded in the minutes.
3.A member who fails to declare loses the mandate on a finding of the Constitutional Court, on the application of the Public Integrity Office.

125

Loss of the mandate

The grounds on which a seat is lost and how it passes to the next candidate on the list.

1.A member loses the mandate on resignation, on the loss of the right to vote, on a conviction for an offence under Article 16(3), on a finding under Article 124(3), or on absence from more than half the sittings of a session without excuse.
2.The seat passes to the next candidate on the list, in the order Article 117(5) establishes.
3.Where no candidate remains, a by-election is held in the state concerned within sixty days.

Chapter II: Organisation and procedure

126

Sessions

An eleven-month ordinary session, extraordinary sittings on demand, and published rules of procedure.

1.Each chamber sits in ordinary session from the first working day of February to the last working day of December.
2.An extraordinary session is convened by the President of the chamber, on the demand of one third of its members, of the Federal Government or of the President of the Republic, on a stated agenda.
3.A chamber fixes its own rules of procedure by a decision published in the Federal Gazette.

127

The presidency of a chamber

Each chamber elects and may dismiss its President, who directs its proceedings.

1.Each chamber elects its President and its other officers at the first sitting, by secret ballot, for the term of the chamber.
2.The President of a chamber directs its proceedings, represents it and is dismissed by the vote of a majority of its members.
3.The Presidents of the two chambers preside in turn over a joint sitting.

128

Committees

Committees sit in public, and the accounts and integrity committees are chaired from outside the Government.

1.Each chamber forms standing committees, composed in proportion to the strength of the lists represented in it.
2.A committee sits in public, publishes its minutes and the documents put before it, and hears the persons whose activity it examines.
3.The chairmanship of the committee on public accounts and of the committee on public integrity belongs to a member who supports no party forming the Federal Government.

129

Committees of inquiry

A quarter of either chamber can open an inquiry that summons persons and compels documents.

1.A committee of inquiry is established on the demand of one quarter of the members of either chamber, and the demand states the subject.
2.A committee of inquiry summons any person, requires the production of any document and takes evidence on oath.
3.An organ, an enterprise and a holder of public function comply with a requirement of the committee, and the refusal to comply is an offence.
4.The committee publishes its report in full, together with any dissenting opinion of its members.

130

Quorum and majorities

A majority present, votes recorded by name and published, and a secret ballot only for elections.

1.A chamber deliberates in the presence of a majority of its members and decides by a majority of those voting, except where this Constitution requires another majority.
2.Voting is by open ballot and each vote is recorded by name and published. A secret ballot is used only for an election this Constitution assigns to a chamber.
3.A vote cast by a person other than the member is void, and the fact is published.

131

Initiative

Who may introduce a bill, and the statement of cost and effect that must accompany it.

1.A bill is introduced by a member, by a committee, by the Federal Government, by a state assembly, or by one fortieth of the electors under Article 51(2).
2.A bill is accompanied by a statement of its purpose, of its cost and of its effect on the plan and on the ceilings under Article 88.
3.A bill which increases expenditure states the receipts from which the expenditure is met.

132

Ordinary procedure

Three readings in the Popular Chamber, then thirty days in the Chamber of the States.

1.A bill is debated and voted in the Popular Chamber, and then transmitted to the Chamber of the States.
2.The Chamber of the States adopts the bill, rejects it or returns it with amendments, within thirty days of the transmission.
3.Where the Chamber of the States returns the bill, the Popular Chamber decides on the amendments by a majority of its members.
4.A bill is voted in three readings, and no fewer than fifteen days separate the first reading from the third, except where two thirds of the members of the chamber decide otherwise, stating the reason.

133

Matters requiring both chambers

The matters on which both chambers must agree, including the plan, treaties and revision.

1.The consent of both chambers is required for the plan, for the federal budget, for the allocations to the states, for a law altering the competences of the states, for a law altering the boundaries of a state, for the ratification of a treaty, for a law under Article 20, and for the revision of this Constitution.
2.In the matters named in paragraph 1, the Chamber of the States decides by a majority of its members, and Article 132(3) does not apply.

134

Conciliation

A conciliation committee of eight proposes a common text, and failure makes the bill lapse.

1.Where the chambers disagree in a matter under Article 133, a conciliation committee of eight members, four from each chamber, is formed within seven days.
2.The committee proposes a common text within thirty days, and the text is voted without amendment in each chamber.
3.Where no common text is adopted, the bill lapses and is reintroduced no earlier than the next session.

135

Organic laws

Which matters need an organic law, and the review of such a law before promulgation.

1.An organic law regulates the electoral system, the organisation of the courts, the status of the Public Integrity Office, the Court of Accounts, the Bank of the Republic, the Electoral Commission, the armed forces, the state of emergency and the symbols of the Republic.
2.An organic law is adopted by a majority of the members of each chamber.
3.An organic law is examined by the Constitutional Court before promulgation, on the referral of the President of the chamber which adopted it last.

136

Promulgation and publication

The President promulgates within fifteen days, may return a law once, and silence passes the pen on.

1.A law adopted by the Federal Assembly is transmitted to the President of the Republic, who promulgates it within fifteen days.
2.The President may return the law once to the Federal Assembly, with reasons, within that period. Where each chamber adopts it again in the same terms, the President promulgates it within eight days.
3.Where the President neither promulgates nor returns the law within the period, the President of the Popular Chamber promulgates it.
4.A law is published in the Federal Gazette under Article 4(2).

137

Review before promulgation

Referral to the Constitutional Court before promulgation, decided in thirty days.

1.The President of the Republic, one fifth of the members of either chamber, a state assembly or the Public Integrity Office may refer a law to the Constitutional Court before promulgation.
2.The Court decides within thirty days, and promulgation is suspended during that period.
3.Where the Court finds the law contrary to this Constitution, the law returns to the Federal Assembly, which adopts it again only in the form the decision permits.

138

Limits of delegation

No delegation over rights, the plan, taxation or the electoral system, and none beyond twelve months.

1.The Federal Assembly delegates no power to legislate on the rights declared in Title II, on the plan, on taxation, on the electoral system or on the matters Article 135 reserves to an organic law.
2.A delegation in any other matter is made by a law which states the subject, the purpose, the limits and a period of no more than twelve months.
3.A decree made under a delegation is laid before both chambers within eight days, and lapses where either chamber has not approved it within sixty days.

Chapter III: Supervision

139

The plan and the budget

The plan and budget arrive by October, are examined in public, and cannot be cut below the guaranteed list.

1.The Federal Government presents the draft plan under Article 85 and the draft budget no later than the first day of October.
2.Each chamber examines the drafts in committee in public, and the Federal Planning Office and the Court of Accounts deliver opinions which are published.
3.An amendment which reduces an allocation to the list under Article 83 is put to no vote.

140

Treaties

Treaties are published thirty days before ratification, and a conflicting one waits for revision.

1.A treaty is ratified by a law, and the text of the treaty with every annex is published thirty days before the vote.
2.A treaty which conflicts with this Constitution is ratified only after the Constitution has been revised.
3.The Federal Assembly is informed of every negotiation, at intervals of no more than three months, and the report is public unless the Assembly decides otherwise for a stated period.

141

Elections by the Assembly

The offices the Assembly elects, the public hearings before the vote, and the fallback after three ballots.

1.The Federal Assembly elects, in joint sitting and by secret ballot, the members of the Constitutional Court whom this Constitution assigns to it, the Director of the Public Integrity Office, the members of the Court of Accounts, the Governor of the Bank of the Republic, the Director of the Federal Planning Office, the members of the Electoral Commission and the Ombudsman.
2.Candidates are proposed in public, their declarations under Article 16(2) are published before the vote, and each candidate is heard in committee in public.
3.Where a majority of two thirds is required and is not obtained in three ballots held on separate days, the office is filled by the candidate who obtains three fifths in a fourth ballot, and the reasons for the failure are published.

142

Questions and interpellation

Written questions answered in thirty days, weekly oral questions, and the President twice a year.

1.A member puts a question in writing to the Federal Government, which answers in writing within thirty days.
2.A sitting for oral questions to the Federal Government is held each week that a chamber sits, and the President of the Republic attends twice a year to answer questions.
3.A group of ten members interpellates the Federal Government on a stated subject, and the interpellation is followed by a debate and may be concluded by a resolution.

143

Supervision of the administration

Either chamber can compel documents and attendance, and the oversight reports are debated in public.

1.Each chamber requires from any organ, public enterprise or holder of public function the production of a document and the attendance of a person.
2.A refusal is stated in writing, cites the provision relied on and is reviewable by the Constitutional Court.
3.The reports of the Court of Accounts, of the Public Integrity Office, of the Federal Planning Office and of the Ombudsman are debated in public within sixty days of their publication.

144

Initiative of the electors

An electors' proposal reaches the agenda in thirty days and may go to referendum if it is rejected.

1.A proposal under Article 51(2) is placed on the agenda within thirty days of its verification by the Electoral Commission.
2.The representatives of the electors who signed the proposal present it in committee and in the chamber.
3.Where the Federal Assembly rejects the proposal, or amends it in a manner the representatives declare contrary to its purpose, the proposal is put to referendum on the demand of one twentieth of the electors.

145

Publicity of proceedings

Sittings are public and transcribed, and a register records who lobbies whom and about what.

1.The sittings of each chamber are public, are broadcast and are recorded in a transcript published within twenty-four hours.
2.A sitting is closed only by a decision of two thirds of the members present, for a stated subject, and the decision with its reasons is published.
3.A register is kept and published of the persons who act before the Federal Assembly on behalf of an interest. For each such person the register records their name, the person or body on whose behalf they act, the subject on which they act, and the members of the Federal Assembly they have met.
4.A member records every meeting held with a person entered in that register about a bill before the Federal Assembly, and the records are published each month.

Title V · The president of the republic

Articles 146 to 161

146

The office

The head of State, exercising the powers this Constitution confers and holding no party office.

1.The President of the Republic is the head of State, represents the Republic and ensures the regular working of its organs.
2.The President exercises the powers this Constitution confers and no others.
3.The President belongs to no party from the day of taking office, and holds no office in a party, in a trade union or in an association during the term.

147

Election

Directly elected in two rounds, on the same rules of finance and publication as other elections.

1.The President is elected by the electors of the Republic, by universal, equal, direct, secret and free suffrage.
2.A candidate who obtains more than half the votes cast in the first round is elected. Where no candidate obtains that majority, a second round is held on the fourteenth day, between the two candidates who obtained the most votes.
3.The election is held between sixty and thirty days before the end of the term in office.
4.Article 119 governs the conduct of the election, the limitation of expenditure and the publication of accounts.

148

Term

Six years, one term only, and no candidacy after two years in the office.

1.The term of the President is six years.
2.A person is elected President once and is not re-elected.
3.A person who has exercised the office of President for more than two years, whether or not elected to it, is not a candidate.

149

Eligibility and incompatibility

Thirty-five years of age, ten years resident, and no other office or paid activity.

1.A citizen who has the right to vote, who is thirty-five years of age and who has resided in the Republic for the ten years preceding the election, is eligible.
2.The office of President is incompatible with every other public office, with membership of either chamber, with the direction of an enterprise and with any paid activity.
3.A person barred from public office under Article 50(3) is not a candidate.

150

Entry into office

The oath before both chambers, and the assets declaration verified within ninety days.

1.The President takes office before the Federal Assembly in joint sitting, on an oath to observe this Constitution and the laws of the Republic.
2.The declaration required by Article 16(2) is published on the day of the oath, and the assets declared are verified by the Public Integrity Office within ninety days.

151

The Federal Government

The President appoints the Prime Minister and ministers, presides over the Government and signs its decisions.

1.The President appoints the Prime Minister after consulting the lists represented in the Popular Chamber, and appoints the ministers on the proposal of the Prime Minister.
2.The Federal Government takes office on a vote of confidence in the Popular Chamber, under Title VI.
3.The President presides over the sittings of the Federal Government and signs its decisions.
4.The President dismisses a minister on the proposal of the Prime Minister, and dismisses the Prime Minister only where the Popular Chamber has withdrawn its confidence.

152

Foreign relations

The President directs foreign relations, concludes treaties and reports to the Assembly twice a year.

1.The President directs the foreign relations of the Republic, together with the Federal Government, and represents it before other states and before the organs of the Democratic Socialist Bloc.
2.The President concludes treaties, which are ratified under Article 140.
3.The President accredits the representatives of the Republic and receives those of other states.
4.The President reports to the Federal Assembly on foreign relations twice a year, in public.

153

Defence

Command of the armed forces, movement within the territory, and no action abroad outside Title X.

1.The President is the commander of the armed forces and presides over the Council of Defence.
2.The President orders the movement of the forces within the territory, and orders no action beyond the frontier except under Title X.
3.The President proposes the declaration of a state of emergency and of a state of armed attack, which Title X governs.

154

Acts of the President

Decrees cite their legal basis, some need countersignature, and none has the force of law.

1.The President acts by decree, which states the provision of this Constitution or of a law on which it rests, and which is published in the Federal Gazette.
2.A decree in the matters of Articles 152(3) and 153(2), and a decree appointing a person to an office, is countersigned by the Prime Minister.
3.A decree taken outside the powers this Constitution confers is void, and the Constitutional Court so declares on the application of either chamber, of a state assembly or of the Public Integrity Office.
4.A decree of the President has no force of law, and Article 138 governs every delegation.

155

Promulgation, referral and referendum

Promulgation and referral, and a referendum only if both chambers approve the question.

1.Articles 136 and 137 govern promulgation and referral.
2.The President may propose a referendum to the Federal Assembly on a matter of national importance, and the referendum is held where each chamber approves the question by a majority of its members.
3.Article 51(3) applies to every question the President proposes.

156

Pardon

Pardons are reasoned and published, and none is granted for corruption or for torture.

1.The President grants an individual pardon on the reasoned opinion of a commission whose members are published.
2.The decision states the reasons, names the person and is published on the day it is taken.
3.No pardon, and no commutation, is granted for an offence under Article 16(3) or for an act contrary to Article 31(2).
4.Amnesty is granted only by a law of the Federal Assembly, subject to the same exclusions.

157

Publicity of the office

The President's official diary, budget and staff appointments are published.

1.The diary of the President, recording the persons received in an official capacity and the subject of each meeting, is published each month.
2.The budget of the Presidency is a chapter of the federal budget, is published in detail and is audited by the Court of Accounts.
3.The staff of the Presidency are appointed by competition under Article 50(2), and the appointments are published.

158

Suspension and removal by referendum

Both chambers may suspend the President, and a referendum within thirty days decides removal.

1.Each chamber, by a majority of its members, may suspend the President from office for a grave breach of this Constitution, on a motion signed by one third of the members of either chamber.
2.The Constitutional Court delivers a reasoned opinion on the motion before the vote, and the opinion is published.
3.The President is heard before each chamber and before the Court.
4.A referendum on the removal of the President is held within thirty days of the suspension. The President is removed where a majority of the votes cast is in favour and the participation exceeds one third of the electors.
5.Where the President is not removed, the suspension ends on the day the result is published, and the term is not extended by it.

159

Removal for an offence of integrity

A finding of corruption confirmed by the Constitutional Court removes the President without any vote.

1.Where the Public Integrity Office finds that the President has committed an offence under Article 16(3), it transmits the finding, with the evidence, to the Constitutional Court and publishes it.
2.The Court hears the President in public and decides within sixty days.
3.Where the Court confirms the finding, the President is removed from office on the day the decision is published, and the decision states the acts proved.
4.Removal under this Article does not depend on a vote of either chamber, and neither chamber prevents it.
5.The removed President is prosecuted before the ordinary courts, and Article 16(3) applies.

160

Liability

No liability for opinions expressed in office, and no deferral of prosecution for anything else.

1.The President answers in no proceedings for an opinion expressed in the exercise of the office.
2.In every other matter the President is prosecuted, tried and punished as any other person.
3.Prosecution is neither suspended nor deferred by reason of the office.

161

Vacancy

How the office falls vacant, who acts in the interim, and what that person may not do.

1.The office falls vacant on death, on resignation tendered to the Federal Assembly, on removal under Article 158 or Article 159, or on a finding of lasting incapacity made by the Constitutional Court on the application of either chamber.
2.During a vacancy, and during a suspension, the President of the Chamber of the States exercises the office.
3.The person exercising the office in the interim appoints no Prime Minister, dismisses no minister, proposes no referendum and grants no pardon.
4.An election is held within ninety days of the vacancy, and the person elected serves a full term.

Title VI · The federal government

Articles 162 to 174

162

The Federal Government

The Government administers the Republic and answers to the Popular Chamber, with ministries fixed by law.

1.The Federal Government conducts the general administration of the Republic, executes the laws, the plan and the budget, and answers to the Popular Chamber for its conduct.
2.The Federal Government consists of the Prime Minister and the ministers.
3.The number of the ministries, their names and the matters assigned to each are fixed by an organic law. A ministry is created, merged or abolished only by amendment of that law.

163

Formation

The programme is presented within fifteen days, and three refusals of confidence bring dissolution.

1.The President appoints the Prime Minister under Article 151(1).
2.The Prime Minister presents the members of the Government and its programme to the Popular Chamber within fifteen days of the appointment.
3.The Government takes office on a vote of confidence carried by a majority of the members of the Popular Chamber.
4.Where confidence is refused, the President appoints another Prime Minister within fifteen days.
5.Where the Popular Chamber has refused confidence three times within ninety days of its first sitting or of the resignation of a Government, the President dissolves it and orders elections.

164

The Prime Minister

The Prime Minister directs the Government, proposes ministers with published reasons, and answers weekly.

1.The Prime Minister directs the work of the Government, coordinates the ministers and answers for the execution of the programme.
2.The Prime Minister proposes to the President the appointment and the dismissal of each minister, and the proposal is published with its reasons.
3.The Prime Minister countersigns the decrees of the President in the cases Article 154(2) names.
4.The Prime Minister answers questions in the Popular Chamber each week that it sits.

165

The ministers

A minister runs one ministry, holds no other paid activity, and gives up any parliamentary seat.

1.A minister directs the ministry assigned to them, executes the decisions of the Government within it and answers to the Popular Chamber for its administration.
2.The office of minister is incompatible with membership of either chamber, with a judicial office, with the direction of an enterprise and with any paid activity.
3.A minister who was elected to a chamber gives up the seat on appointment, and the seat passes under Article 125(2).
4.Article 16(2) applies to every minister, and the declaration is published on the day of the appointment.

166

Sittings of the Government

The Government meets weekly, records each vote, publishes within seven days, and excludes interested members.

1.The Government sits at least once a week, under the presidency of the President of the Republic or, where the President is absent, of the Prime Minister.
2.The Government decides by a majority of its members, and the vote of each member is recorded.
3.The agenda, the decisions taken and the votes recorded are published within seven days.
4.A member of the Government who has an interest in a matter declares it and takes no part in the decision, and the declaration is entered in the record.

167

Acts of the Government

Regulations cite the law they execute, and one contrary to a law or the plan is void.

1.The Government acts by regulation, which states the law it executes and is published in the Federal Gazette.
2.A regulation contrary to a law or to the plan is void, and any person may apply to the courts for a declaration to that effect.
3.The Government legislates by no act of its own, and Article 138 governs every delegation.

168

Censure

A motion of censure must name the successor, and carrying it appoints that person.

1.The Popular Chamber withdraws confidence from the Government by carrying a motion of censure which names the person to be appointed Prime Minister in place of the incumbent.
2.A motion is signed by one fifth of the members of the Popular Chamber and is voted no earlier than the third day and no later than the seventh day after it is tabled.
3.A motion is carried by a majority of the members of the Popular Chamber. On the carrying of the motion the President appoints the person named, who forms a Government under Article 163(2).
4.A member who has signed a motion which fails signs no further motion in the same session.
5.The Prime Minister may put the question of confidence, and the Government resigns where the Popular Chamber refuses it by a majority of its members.

169

Resignation and continuity

When a Government resigns, and what a resigned Government may no longer do.

1.The Government resigns on the carrying of a motion under Article 168, on the resignation of the Prime Minister, on the death or lasting incapacity of the Prime Minister, or on the first sitting of a newly elected Popular Chamber.
2.A Government which has resigned continues in office until its successor takes office, and during that period it proposes no bill, makes no appointment to an office this Constitution assigns and grants no support under Article 98.
3.The resignation of a minister does not end the Government.

170

Liability of members of the Government

Ministers are prosecuted like any other person, and an instruction called unlawful must be confirmed in writing.

1.The Prime Minister and each minister answer before the ordinary courts for any offence committed, and the office defers no prosecution.
2.A minister answers to the Popular Chamber for every act of the ministry, including an act of a subordinate carried out on the minister's instruction.
3.An instruction given by a minister to an official is recorded in writing, and an instruction which the official states in writing to be unlawful is executed only where the minister confirms it in writing. The confirmation is transmitted to the Public Integrity Office and published.

171

The public administration

The administration gives reasons, answers within thirty days, and silence counts as a refusal.

1.The public administration serves the population, acts on a legal basis, treats similar cases alike and states the reasons for every decision it takes.
2.A person is entitled to a decision on any application within thirty days, and silence beyond that period is a refusal which may be contested before the courts.
3.Every organ keeps a register of the applications received and the periods taken to decide them, and publishes it each quarter.

172

The civil service

Appointment by open competition, dismissal only on defined grounds, and no clear-out on a change of Government.

1.Appointment to the public administration is made by open competition, on criteria published before the competition opens, and the results with the reasons are published.
2.An official is dismissed only on a ground an organic law defines, by a reasoned decision, with the right to be heard and to appeal to the courts.
3.A change of Government, of Prime Minister or of minister ends no appointment in the administration.
4.The posts filled by political appointment are listed in an organic law, are limited to the private office of each minister, and are published with the names and the remuneration of their holders.
5.An official who reports conduct falling under Article 16 is protected under Article 16(5), and the protection covers the period after the official leaves the service.

173

The states and the administration

Federal law is executed through federal or state services, with no instruction in an individual case.

1.The Federal Government executes a federal law through its own services, or through the services of a state where a federal law so provides and the resources accompany the task.
2.The Federal Government issues general instructions to a state service acting under paragraph 1, and issues no instruction in an individual case.
3.Article 11 governs the failure of a state organ to apply a federal law.

174

The Ombudsman

The Ombudsman examines complaints free of charge and publishes both recommendation and reply.

1.The Ombudsman examines complaints against the administration, at the request of any person and without charge.
2.The Ombudsman enters any premises of an organ, requires any document and hears any official.
3.The Ombudsman addresses recommendations to the organ concerned, which answers within thirty days, and publishes both.
4.The Ombudsman reports to the Federal Assembly each year, and the report is debated under Article 143(3).

Title VII · Local self-government

Articles 175 to 182

175

Principle and units

Local affairs are run by elected communes and districts, each with its own property and budget.

1.Local affairs are administered by the residents themselves, through organs they elect.
2.The units of local self-government are the commune and the district. Each district comprises the communes within its area.
3.A unit has legal personality, holds property, keeps its own budget and appears before the courts in its own name.
4.Talmeru is administered as a district, and its internal divisions are communes.

176

Competence

General competence in local matters, and a task transferred without resources imposes no obligation.

1.A unit of local self-government decides every matter of local concern which this Constitution and the laws have not assigned to another organ.
2.The commune is responsible for local roads, water supply and drainage, waste, local transport, the housing stock, nurseries and primary schooling, local cultural institutions and the maintenance of public space.
3.The district is responsible for the matters which exceed the capacity of a single commune, in particular secondary schooling, hospitals of the district, roads between communes and spatial planning.
4.A task is transferred to a unit only by a law which states the task, its duration and the resources accompanying it. A transfer without resources imposes no obligation.
5.A federal or state law which limits the competence under paragraph 1 states the reason for the limit and the period for which it runs.

177

The commune council and the mayor

The commune council is elected proportionally and elects the mayor, who can be replaced by a named successor.

1.The commune council is elected for four years by the residents of the commune, by proportional representation from lists, without a threshold.
2.The council elects the mayor from among its members at its first sitting, by secret ballot and by a majority of its members.
3.The council dismisses the mayor by the same majority, on a motion signed by one third of its members which names a successor.
4.The mayor executes the decisions of the council, directs the services of the commune and answers to the council for them.
5.Article 16(2) applies to the mayor, to every member of the council and to the head of every service of the commune.

178

The district council

The district council is elected the same way, and the mayors of its communes are heard.

1.The district council is elected for four years by the residents of the district, by proportional representation from lists, without a threshold.
2.The council elects its president from among its members, and dismisses the president in the manner Article 177(3) establishes.
3.The mayors of the communes of the district meet with the council at least four times a year, and their opinions on any matter affecting their communes are recorded in the decision.

179

Publicity and participation

Local sittings and papers are published, a tenth of residents can force a referendum, and residents vote on investment.

1.The sittings of a local council are public, and the agenda, the papers and the decisions are published seven days before and after each sitting.
2.A resident speaks at a sitting on a matter on the agenda, on the conditions the council's rules establish.
3.A local referendum is held on the demand of one tenth of the residents entitled to vote, and its result binds the council for the term in which it is held.
4.The council submits a part of the investment budget, of no less than one twentieth, to the decision of the residents, and publishes the projects proposed, the votes cast and the works carried out.
5.A contract of a unit of local self-government is published under Article 17(2), and a contract which has not been published creates no obligation on the unit.

180

Local finance and property

Local finance comes by published formula, cannot be withheld, and local property cannot be sold.

1.A unit is financed by the share of federal and state receipts which a federal law fixes, by the charges Article 10(3) authorises, and by the income of its property.
2.The share under paragraph 1 is calculated by a published formula, is paid in equal monthly instalments and is withheld by no organ.
3.A unit adopts its budget in public and publishes its accounts each quarter, in money and in the physical units of Article 88.
4.Property entrusted to a unit is held under Article 77, and the unit neither sells it nor grants security over it.
5.A unit contracts a loan only from the Republic or from the state, and Article 20 applies to any obligation to a lender outside the Democratic Socialist Bloc.

181

Supervision

The state supervises lawfulness alone, through the courts, and only a court may dissolve a council.

1.A state supervises the lawfulness of the acts of a unit within it, and supervises no question of expediency.
2.Where the state considers an act unlawful, it states the ground in writing and applies to a court, which decides within sixty days. The act remains in force until the court decides, unless the court suspends it.
3.A council is dissolved only by a decision of the Constitutional Court, on proof that it has ceased to meet or has failed to adopt a budget for two consecutive years, and elections are held within sixty days of the dissolution.
4.During a dissolution the services of the unit are administered by an officer the state appoints, who takes no decision reserved to the council.

182

Cooperation and boundaries

Units may act jointly, including with a unit across the frontier in another Bloc state.

1.Units form joint bodies for the exercise of a task in common, by an agreement which states the task, the contributions and the manner of withdrawal, and which is published.
2.A commune on the frontier operates an institution jointly with a unit of a neighbouring member state of the Democratic Socialist Bloc, by an agreement approved by the state and published in full.
3.A commune is created, merged or abolished, and its boundaries are altered, by a law of the state, after a referendum of the residents concerned, and against the result of that referendum no such law is adopted.
4.The seat of a district is fixed by a law of the state.

Title VIII · The courts

Articles 183 to 193

183

Judicial power

The courts judge in the name of the people, take no instruction, and extraordinary courts are prohibited.

1.Justice is administered by the courts in the name of the people.
2.A court decides on the law and on the evidence before it, and receives an instruction from no organ, no party and no holder of public function.
3.An organ which attempts to influence the decision of a court commits an offence, and the attempt is reported by the judge to the Judicial Council and published.
4.A court is established only by an organic law. Extraordinary courts are prohibited, and no person is removed from the court which the law assigns to their case.
5.A decision of a court is executed by every organ, and an organ which fails to execute it answers under Article 28.

184

Status of judges

Judges serve to retirement, are moved or removed only by the Judicial Council, and declare their assets.

1.A judge is appointed for an indefinite period and holds office until the age an organic law fixes.
2.A judge is transferred, suspended or removed only by a decision of the Judicial Council, on a ground an organic law defines, with the right to be heard and to appeal to the Supreme Court.
3.A judge answers in no proceedings for a decision taken, except where the decision was procured by an offence under Article 16(3).
4.The office of judge is incompatible with membership of a party, with membership of a chamber or of a local council, with the direction of an enterprise and with any paid activity apart from teaching and research.
5.Article 16(2) applies to every judge and to every prosecutor, and the declarations are published.
6.The remuneration of judges is fixed by an organic law and is reduced by no other act.

185

The Judicial Council

Fifteen members, nine of them judges elected by judges, sitting in public and publishing reasons.

1.The Judicial Council has fifteen members, elected for six years and not re-elected.
2.Nine members are judges, elected by the judges of the Republic by secret ballot, of whom no more than two sit on the Supreme Court and at least one comes from each state.
3.Four members are elected by the Federal Assembly by a majority of two thirds, from among lawyers and teachers of law who have not held judicial office.
4.Two members are elected by the associations of lawyers.
5.The Council elects its president from among its judicial members, sits in public, publishes its decisions with their reasons, and reports to the Federal Assembly each year.

186

Appointment, promotion and discipline

Appointment and promotion by published competition, and discipline in public with the judge named.

1.A judge is appointed by the Judicial Council after a competition conducted on published criteria, and the ranking of the candidates with the reasons is published.
2.Promotion follows a competition on the same terms, and seniority alone determines no promotion.
3.Disciplinary proceedings are opened on a complaint from any person, are conducted in public, and end in a reasoned decision which is published with the identity of the judge.
4.The Council publishes each year the number of complaints received, the outcome of each, and the periods taken to decide them.

187

Organisation of the courts

State courts in first and second instance, with the Supreme Court above them on federal law.

1.Justice is administered in first and second instance by the courts of the states, constituted under Article 8(2) and in conformity with the organic law of the Republic.
2.Federal law and state law are applied by the same courts.
3.The Supreme Court of the Republic sits above the courts of the states, hears appeals on points of federal law and on the uniformity of its application, and hears the appeals this Constitution assigns to it.
4.The Supreme Court sits in chambers for civil, criminal, administrative and economic matters, and in plenary session where a chamber departs from a settled interpretation.
5.A judgment of the Supreme Court in plenary session binds the courts of the states in the interpretation it establishes, and is published with any dissenting opinion.

188

Access and conduct of proceedings

Cases assigned by lot, judgments published, and each court publishing its delays and reversals.

1.Cases are assigned to judges by lot, by a published procedure, and a case is reassigned only by a reasoned decision entered in the file.
2.Judgments are published in full, with the names of the judges and of the parties, and the names of private parties are withheld where an organic law so provides.
3.Each court publishes each quarter the number of cases pending, the periods taken to decide them and the number of decisions reversed on appeal.
4.Legal assistance is provided under Article 27(2), and the courts publish the sums spent on it by state.
5.Proceedings are conducted under Article 34, and Article 13(3) governs the language of the proceedings.

189

The prosecution

The prosecution is independent, its head elected by two thirds, and discontinuance is reasoned and reviewable.

1.The prosecution investigates offences, brings charges and represents the public interest before the courts.
2.The prosecution is independent. The Federal Government, a minister and a holder of public function give it no instruction in an individual case.
3.The Prosecutor General is elected by the Federal Assembly by a majority of two thirds, for six years, and is not re-elected. Article 141(2) governs the procedure.
4.A general instruction on the priorities of prosecution is issued by the Prosecutor General alone, in writing, and is published.
5.A decision to discontinue proceedings states its reasons, is published, and is reviewable by a court on the application of the injured person.

190

The Anti-Corruption Prosecution

A separate corruption prosecution with its own budget, assignment by lot, and no immunity in its way.

1.The Anti-Corruption Prosecution investigates and prosecutes the offences Article 16(3) names, and the offences under Articles 20(3), 110(2) and 119(4).
2.It has its own investigators, its own experts in accounting and its own budget, which is a separate chapter of the federal budget.
3.Its Director is elected by the Federal Assembly by a majority of two thirds, for six years, and is not re-elected. The Director is dismissed only by the Constitutional Court, on a finding of an offence or of incapacity.
4.A case is assigned within the Prosecution by lot, and is withdrawn from the prosecutor assigned only by a reasoned decision of the Director, published within seven days.
5.The Prosecution reports to the Federal Assembly each year, stating the number of investigations opened, the offices held by the persons investigated, the outcomes, and the sums recovered.
6.No organ transfers a case from the Anti-Corruption Prosecution to another body, and no immunity, procedural authorisation or prior consent is required to open an investigation into any holder of public function.

191

The Constitutional Court

Nine judges from three sources, nine years, renewed by thirds, and removable only by the Court itself.

1.The Constitutional Court has nine judges, appointed for nine years and not reappointed. One third is renewed every three years.
2.Three judges are elected by the Federal Assembly in joint sitting by a majority of two thirds, three are elected by the plenary session of the Supreme Court, and three are elected by the Judicial Council from among candidates presented by the faculties of law and the associations of lawyers.
3.A judge of the Court has practised law, taught law or held judicial office for at least fifteen years, and has held no party office in the five years preceding the election.
4.The Court elects its president from among its members for three years.
5.A judge of the Court is removed only by the Court itself, by a majority of two thirds, on a finding of an offence or of lasting incapacity, and the decision is published with the acts proved.

192

Jurisdiction of the Constitutional Court

What the Court decides, who may bring a case, and when a provision found unconstitutional falls.

1.The Court decides on the conformity with this Constitution of a law, of a decree, of a regulation, of a statute of a state and of a law of a state.
2.The Court is seised before promulgation under Article 137, and after promulgation on the application of the President of the Republic, of one fifth of the members of either chamber, of a state assembly, of the Public Integrity Office, of the Ombudsman, or of a court before which the question has arisen.
3.Any person applies to the Court under Article 27(3) for the protection of a right declared in Title II.
4.The Court decides disputes over competence between the Republic and a state, between states, and between the organs of the Republic.
5.The Court exercises the further functions Articles 51(4), 119(3), 124(3), 154(3), 158, 159, 161(1) and 181(3) assign to it.
6.A provision the Court finds contrary to this Constitution ceases to have effect on the day the decision is published, and the Court may defer that day by no more than twelve months where an immediate cessation would leave a matter unregulated.

193

Procedure of the Constitutional Court

The Court sits in public, hears a person without a lawyer or fee, and binds every organ and every court.

1.The Court sits in public, decides by a majority of its members and publishes every decision with its reasons and with any dissenting opinion.
2.An application by a person is made without a lawyer and without charge, and the Court appoints a lawyer where the case requires one.
3.The Court decides within six months, and within thirty days in the cases Articles 137 and 158 govern.
4.The decisions of the Court bind every organ, every court and every person, and are subject to no appeal.

Title IX · Independent bodies

Articles 194 to 198

194

Common provisions

What the independent bodies have in common: their own budgets, no instructions, and full publication.

1.The independent bodies of the Republic are the Public Integrity Office, the Court of Accounts, the Bank of the Republic, the Federal Planning Office, the Electoral Commission, the Ombudsman and the council of public broadcasting.
2.Each body is established by an organic law, which states its functions, its powers of investigation and the qualifications of its members.
3.A body receives no instruction from the Federal Government, from a minister, from a state or from any other organ, and states in its annual report every attempt to instruct it.
4.The budget of each body is a separate chapter of the federal budget, is proposed by the body itself, and is reduced by the Federal Assembly only by a reasoned decision published with the proposal it displaced.
5.The head and the members of each body are dismissed only by the Constitutional Court, on a finding of an offence under Article 16(3) or of lasting incapacity, and Article 141 governs their election.
6.Each body publishes its findings in full, including those an organ has contested, and reports to the Federal Assembly each year under Article 143(3).

195

The Public Integrity Office

The Office verifies declarations, removes office holders for conflicts, and states unexplained wealth.

1.The Public Integrity Office receives and verifies the declarations required by Article 16(2), and holds the register Article 197 establishes.
2.The Office finds whether a holder of public function has a conflict of interest, has exercised a function for private advantage, or holds wealth which the declared income and the declared acquisitions do not explain.
3.Where the Office finds a conflict of interest or an exercise of function for private advantage, it removes the holder from office by a reasoned decision, which is published and which the organ concerned executes within fifteen days.
4.Where the Office finds wealth which is not explained, it states the sum, transmits the file to the Anti-Corruption Prosecution and publishes the finding. The wealth is forfeited only by a judgment of a court, in which the holder is heard.
5.The Office enters the premises of any organ, requires the production of any document, and obtains from any bank, registry or enterprise the records relating to a person under verification.
6.The Office verifies the declaration of every candidate for election before the poll, and publishes the verification.

196

The Director of the Office

The Director is elected from candidates the Judicial Council presents, with a Bloc deputy during the settlement.

1.The Director of the Public Integrity Office is elected by the Federal Assembly in joint sitting, by a majority of two thirds, for six years, and is not re-elected.
2.The Judicial Council presents the candidates, after a public competition on published criteria, and publishes the ranking with its reasons. The Federal Assembly elects from among the candidates presented and from no other person.
3.The Director appoints the staff of the Office by competition under Article 172(1), and no post in the Office is filled by political appointment.
4.The Director has one deputy. For as long as Title XII remains in force, one further deputy is designated by the joint committee that title establishes, under Article 211, and that deputy has the powers Article 195(5) confers and no power to remove a holder of public function.
5.The Director reports to the Federal Assembly every six months, in public, and answers questions from the committee on public integrity.

197

The register of assets

A public register of assets, searchable without registration, kept for ten years after office.

1.The register of assets records, for every holder of public function, the declarations required by Article 16(2), the verifications the Office has carried out, and the findings it has made.
2.The register is public. Any person consults it without charge, without registration and without stating a reason, and searches it by name, by office, by state and by year.
3.An entry remains in the register for ten years after the holder leaves office.
4.The residential address of a person, the identity of a child and the details of a bank account are withheld from the public version, and are held by the Office in full.
5.A holder of public function who fails to declare within the period, or who declares falsely, is removed from office by a decision of the Office and is barred from public function for the period an organic law states.

198

Procedure and safeguards

The person is heard before a finding, may appeal to the Supreme Court, and the reporter stays anonymous.

1.A person under verification is informed of the matter examined, is heard, and receives a copy of the file before a finding is made.
2.A finding of the Public Integrity Office is contested before the Supreme Court within thirty days. The appeal suspends a removal under Article 195(3) but does not suspend the publication of the finding.
3.The Office opens a verification on its own initiative, on a complaint under Article 52(2), or on a referral by a court, by the Court of Accounts or by the Federal Planning Office, and it publishes each year the number opened by each route.
4.A person who reports a matter to the Office is protected under Article 16(5), and the Office discloses the identity of that person to no organ.
5.An officer of the Office who discloses information from a verification outside the procedure commits an offence, and the office confers no immunity from it.

Title X · Defence, public order and emergency

Articles 199 to 205

199

The armed forces

A standing professional force and the state militias, subordinate to the civil power.

1.The armed forces defend the territory, the independence and the population of the Republic.
2.The forces consist of a standing professional force and of the territorial militias of the states.
3.The strength of the standing force, its equipment and its budget are fixed each year by a law, and the budget is published in detail.
4.The forces are subordinate to the civil power. The President commands them under Article 153, and the Federal Assembly decides their employment in the cases this Title states.
5.A member of the forces holds every right declared in Title II, apart from the limits an organic law places on political activity while in service, and votes in every election.

200

The territorial militia

Each state trains a militia, employed for defence and rescue and barred from acting against an assembly or a strike.

1.Each state maintains a territorial militia, composed of residents who serve voluntarily and are trained in the state in which they live.
2.The militia is employed within the state for defence against an armed attack, for rescue after a disaster and for the protection of works of water, energy and transport.
3.On the declaration of an armed attack the militias pass under the command of the President, and they return to the command of the state on the day the declaration ends.
4.A militia is employed against an assembly, a demonstration or a strike in no circumstances, and an order to that effect is unlawful and is executed by no member.
5.The equipment of a militia is held in armouries the Federal Assembly lists, and its stocks are audited each year by the Court of Accounts.

201

Limits

No alliance, no foreign base, no surveillance of the population, and no defence in a superior's order.

1.Article 7(2) governs foreign military installations, and Article 113(4) governs the export of weapons and their components.
2.The Republic joins no military alliance and enters no obligation to place its forces at the disposal of another state.
3.A member of the forces obeys no order to commit an act contrary to Article 31(2), and the order confers no defence upon the person who executes it.
4.The forces conduct no surveillance of the population, and Article 41 applies to every service of the forces.
5.A person leaves the forces on giving the notice an organic law states, and the Republic holds no person in service beyond a declared armed attack.

202

Action beyond the frontier

Rescue and relief by majority law, and any other action abroad by two-thirds law and referendum.

1.The forces act beyond the frontier only for the rescue of persons in distress, for relief after a disaster, and for participation in a mission of peace established by a body of which the Republic is a member.
2.Rescue and relief are authorised by a law adopted by a majority of the members of each chamber. The authorisation states the object, the territory and the duration, and carries no mandate to use force except in self-defence.
3.Every other action beyond the frontier requires a law adopted by two thirds of the members of each chamber and the approval of a referendum.
4.The question put to referendum states the object, the territory, the number of persons deployed, the duration, the rules governing the use of force and the date on which the mandate expires. Article 51(4) governs its clarity.
5.A mandate expires on the date stated. Its renewal follows the whole procedure again.
6.Members of the forces serving beyond the frontier remain subject to the criminal law of the Republic and to its ordinary courts, and the Republic accepts no immunity from the courts of the territory in which the mission takes place.

203

Public order

Civilian police, identifiable officers, recorded use of force, and independent investigation of complaints.

1.Public order is maintained by police services which are civilian, are established by law and answer to the organ the law names.
2.An officer on duty is identifiable at all times by a number visible on the uniform, and an officer who conceals it commits a disciplinary offence.
3.Force is used only where it is necessary and in the degree the necessity requires. Every use of force is recorded, reported within twenty-four hours and published in aggregate each quarter.
4.A complaint against an officer is investigated by a body independent of the service concerned, whose findings are published and whose refusal to prosecute is reviewable by a court.
5.The armed forces are employed in the maintenance of public order only after a disaster, and only for rescue, supply and the clearing of routes.

204

State of emergency

The President declares an emergency, both chambers confirm it in seven days, and core rights stand.

1.A state of emergency is declared only upon a natural disaster, an epidemic, the failure of a system on which the supply of water, energy, food or health care depends, or a comparable event which the ordinary powers cannot meet.
2.The President declares the state of emergency by a decree which states the territory covered, the danger met, the measures authorised and the date on which it expires. The decree is published at once with the evidence relied on.
3.The decree is transmitted immediately to both chambers, to the Constitutional Court, to the Ombudsman and to the assemblies of the states covered. It lapses after seven days unless each chamber confirms it by a majority of its members.
4.Before confirmation the Constitutional Court finds whether the grounds in paragraph 1 exist, and decides within seventy-two hours. The Court publishes the finding.
5.A confirmed state of emergency runs for thirty days and is renewed only by the same procedure.
6.During a state of emergency the rights Article 26(4) protects are neither limited nor suspended, no election is postponed except under Article 120(3), no chamber is dissolved, no revision of this Constitution is adopted, and the courts sit without interruption.
7.For as long as Title XII remains in force, the declaration is notified to the joint committee under Article 211 on the day it is published.

205

Armed attack

On an armed attack the chambers meet within a day and review the measures every thirty days.

1.Where the territory is under armed attack, the President states the fact, orders the measures the defence requires and convenes both chambers, which meet within twenty-four hours.
2.The Federal Assembly decides on the response by a law adopted by a majority of the members of each chamber, and reviews the measures taken every thirty days in public sitting.
3.Where a chamber cannot meet, the measures continue in force and are submitted to it on the first day it is able to sit.
4.Paragraph 6 of Article 204 applies during an armed attack, and Article 120(3) governs any extension of a term.
5.The Republic recognises no capitulation which cedes territory. An act of that kind is void and imposes no obligation on the Republic.

Title XI · Revision of the constitution

Articles 206 to 208

206

Initiative and procedure

Revision needs two thirds of each chamber and a referendum, checked by the Court for its limits.

1.A revision of this Constitution is proposed by one third of the members of either chamber, by the President of the Republic on the proposal of the Federal Government, by three state assemblies, or by one twentieth of the electors.
2.The proposal states the articles to be revised and the text proposed for each, and is published sixty days before the first vote.
3.The proposal is adopted by two thirds of the members of each chamber, voting on the same text.
4.The text adopted is submitted to referendum no earlier than thirty days and no later than ninety days after the second vote, and enters into force where a majority of the votes cast approves it.
5.Where a proposal fails at either stage, the same proposal is introduced again only in a later term of the Popular Chamber.
6.The Constitutional Court verifies, before the referendum, that the text adopted observes Article 207, and publishes its finding.

207

Limits of revision

The republican and federal form, the Title II rights and social ownership are beyond revision.

1.The following admit no revision: the republican form of the State, the federal form of the union of the states, the rights declared in Title II, and the social ownership of the categories Article 6(1) names.
2.A revision reduces no right declared in Title II and removes no guarantee of its enforcement.
3.No revision is proposed, adopted or submitted to referendum during a state of emergency, during a declared armed attack, or while a chamber is dissolved.
4.A revision which suspends the operation of this Article, or which alters the majorities Article 206 requires, is void.

208

Publication of the revised text

A revision is consolidated and published, and the wording it displaced is kept in the Annex.

1.A revision in force is incorporated in the consolidated text, which the Federal Assembly publishes in the Federal Gazette within thirty days.
2.Each revision is recorded with its number, its date, the articles it altered and the result of the referendum which approved it.
3.The wording displaced by a revision is preserved in the Annex to this Constitution and is altered by no subsequent act.

Title XII · The rescue settlement

Articles 209 to 214

209

Purpose and duration

Why this Title exists, when it began, and how it ends when the obligations are discharged.

1.This Title governs the obligations contracted abroad between 2008 and 2016, the settlement concluded upon them in 2017, and the assistance the member states of the Democratic Socialist Bloc furnished between 2017 and 2021.
2.This Title enters into force on 1 July 2021 and remains in force until the obligations Article 210 identifies are discharged.
3.The Court of Accounts certifies the discharge, and the Constitutional Court declares this Title spent by a decision published in the Federal Gazette. On that day Articles 211 to 213 cease to have effect.
4.The certification is examined by the Court of Accounts each year, and its report is debated under Article 143(3).
5.A provision of this Title is neither suspended, extended nor amended except by revision under Title XI.

210

The obligations of 2008 to 2016

The 2008 to 2016 debts are scheduled and published, and unauthorised ones create no debt.

1.Every obligation to a lender outside the Democratic Socialist Bloc contracted between 1 January 2008 and 31 December 2016 is entered in a public schedule, stating the lender, the sum, the charge, the purpose declared and the officers who contracted it.
2.An obligation contracted without the authorisation the law then required, or applied to a purpose other than the one declared, creates no debt of the Republic, and the officers who contracted it answer under Article 20(3).
3.The remaining obligations are discharged on the schedule the settlement of 2017 established, which is published with each payment made.
4.The Anti-Corruption Prosecution investigates the contracting of every obligation in the schedule, and Article 16(3) applies to the time limit.
5.The Republic contracts no new obligation for the purpose of discharging an obligation in the schedule.

211

The joint committee

The joint committee supervises and publishes, and may not legislate, annul, remove or instruct a court.

1.A joint committee supervises the execution of this Title.
2.The committee consists of one member designated by each of the other member states of the Democratic Socialist Bloc, and two members elected by the Federal Assembly in joint sitting by a majority of two thirds.
3.The committee sits in public in the Republic, publishes its minutes and its findings, and reports to the Federal Assembly and to the organs of the Bloc every three months.
4.The committee designates the deputy Article 196(4) provides for, receives the notifications Articles 204(7) and 212(3) require, and delivers opinions on the matters Articles 212 and 213 govern.
5.The committee exercises no power to make a law, to annul an act of an organ of the Republic, to remove a holder of public function, or to give an instruction to a court.
6.An opinion of the committee is published, and the organ which departs from it publishes its reasons within fifteen days.

212

Supervision of budgets and borrowing

State budgets are checked and public borrowing is authorised centrally while the settlement runs.

1.The budget of a state, and the budget of a district, is submitted to the Federal Ministry of Finance before adoption, which verifies its conformity with the plan and with the allocations made to the state, and publishes its opinion within thirty days.
2.Where the Ministry finds a budget in conflict with the plan, the state adopts it again in conformity, and Article 11 applies where the state does not do so.
3.A state, a district, a commune and a public enterprise contract no loan, credit or guarantee without the prior authorisation of the Federal Ministry of Finance, which publishes the authorisation with its reasons and notifies the joint committee.
4.Article 20 continues to govern every obligation to a lender outside the Democratic Socialist Bloc, and this Article adds to it and does not replace it.
5.The Court of Accounts audits every authorisation granted under paragraph 3 and reports on it each year.

213

Planning and integrity during the settlement

The federal plan prevails over state plans, and the Integrity Office reaches state and local office holders.

1.The plan the Federal Assembly adopts under Article 86 prevails over the plan of a state, and a provision of a state plan in conflict with it has no effect.
2.The Federal Planning Office verifies the accounts of the enterprises of the states on their premises, and publishes its findings under Article 90(3).
3.The Public Integrity Office exercises over the holders of public function of the states, of the districts and of the communes the powers Article 195 confers, and removes such a holder by a reasoned decision which the organ concerned executes within fifteen days.
4.A decision under paragraph 3 is contested before the Supreme Court under Article 198(2), and the state concerned may contest it before the Constitutional Court under Article 11(3).
5.The Public Integrity Office publishes each year the number of holders removed, by state and by office.

214

Effect on the states

The Title limits state competences temporarily, and they return on the day it is declared spent.

1.This Title limits the competences Article 10 confers, for the period it remains in force and to the extent it states.
2.A competence limited by this Title returns to the state on the day Article 209(3) states, without any further act.
3.This Title dissolves no state assembly, postpones no election in a state, alters no boundary of a state and suspends no right declared in Title II.
4.The Federal Assembly reviews the operation of this Title at each planning period, hears the state assemblies and the joint committee, and publishes its conclusions.

Title XIII · Final and transitional provisions

Articles 215 to 217

215

Entry into force and repeal

Entry into force, what was repealed, and the eighteen months allowed for outstanding organic laws.

1.This Constitution entered into force on 14 March 1961 and repealed the Fundamental Law of 1947 and every act inconsistent with it.
2.An Amendment enters into force on the day the result of the referendum approving it is published, unless the Amendment itself states a later day.
3.A law, a decree and a regulation in force on the day an Amendment enters into force continue in force to the extent that they conform to this Constitution, and the Constitutional Court decides any question of conformity on the application of the persons Article 192(2) names.
4.An organic law required by this Constitution and not yet adopted is adopted within eighteen months of the entry into force of the provision requiring it. The Court of Accounts reports each year on the organic laws outstanding.

216

Continuity of organs and of law

Organs carry on the work of those they replaced, and earlier decisions stay valid.

1.An organ established under this Constitution continues the functions of the organ it replaced, and takes over its property, its staff, its records and its pending business.
2.A holder of office elected or appointed before an Amendment enters into force completes the term for which that person was chosen, and the new conditions of eligibility apply at the next election or appointment.
3.A judgment, a licence, a registration and an administrative decision made under an earlier text remain valid, and are reviewed under this Constitution only where a person applies for the review.
4.A reference in a law to an organ that no longer exists is read as a reference to the organ which exercises its functions.

217

Transition from the institutions of 1961

How the 1961 institutions gave way to the present ones, and what became of their archives.

1.The Assembly of the Working People, constituted under the text of 1961, exercised the functions of the Federal Assembly until the first election of the two chambers under Amendment V, held on 9 December 1990.
2.The Presidium of the Assembly exercised the functions of the head of State until the first President of the Republic took office on 20 January 1991, and the Council of State exercised the functions of the Federal Government until the first Government took office under Amendment V.
3.The courts constituted under the text of 1961 continued to sit until the courts of the states were established under Amendment VI, and the judges then in office were confirmed or replaced by the Judicial Council within three years of its constitution.
4.The archives of the Assembly of the Working People, of the Council of State and of the single party pass to the National Archive. Access to them is governed by Article 41(3), and no record is destroyed, withdrawn or reclassified.
5.A person who held office under the text of 1961 loses no right by reason of that office alone, and Article 41(4) governs the offices from which a person is barred.

Schedule of Amendments

Twelve Amendments, 1968 to 2021

Each Amendment was approved by referendum under Article 206(4)
No.	Date	Articles altered	Subject
I	14 May 1968	8, 13	Statutes of the states, and the use of a state language beside Iosmen
II	3 April 1974	94, 95	Workers' councils in public enterprises, and the selection of the director
III	19 June 1981	71, 83	Extension of the guaranteed provision and of the list attached to it
IV	22 February 1990	5, 41	Abolition of the leading role of the single party, and of the Directorate of State Security
V	4 November 1990	Title II, 116 to 118, 146 to 161	Rights rewritten to the European standard, two chambers, direct election of the President
VI	8 October 1992	183 to 187	Independence of the judiciary, the Judicial Council, courts of the states
VII	11 December 1994	18, 111, 112	Accession to the Democratic Socialist Bloc, and settlement in physical units
VIII	26 March 1997	175 to 182	Communes and districts, and their general competence
IX	15 September 2003	117	Threshold of five per cent for the allocation of seats in the Popular Chamber
X	30 May 2011	106, 107	The vela, and the powers of the Bank of the Republic
XI	7 April 2019	117, 119	Removal of the threshold, public funding of parties, limits on donations
XII	30 June 2021	Title XII, 16, 20, 190, 194 to 198	The rescue settlement, external borrowing, the Anti-Corruption Prosecution, the Public Integrity Office

Annex · wording displaced

Preserved under Article 208(3) and altered by no subsequent act

The wording below has no force. Each entry states the Amendment which displaced it and the article which now occupies its place.

From the text of 1961

Article 5 (1961)

Displaced by Amendment IV

1.The Party of Labour of Iosmein is the leading force of society and of the State, and directs the work of every organ, every enterprise and every association.
2.The organs of the State apply the decisions of the Party in the matters to which those decisions extend.

Article 8 (1961)

Displaced by Amendment I

1.The Republic is formed of the states of Vetruna, Osreni, Kadrena, Velmar and Sarnovein, which exercise the competences the Assembly of the Working People confers upon them.
2.The statute of a state is adopted by the Assembly of the Working People and is amended by it.

Article 13 (1961)

Displaced by Amendment I

1.Iosmen is the language of the Republic and of its organs.
2.A person who does not speak Iosmen is assisted before an organ by an interpreter the organ appoints.

Article 16 (1961)

Displaced by Amendment XII

1.A holder of public function serves the working people and answers for the discharge of the function to the organ that appointed them.

Article 41 (1961)

Displaced by Amendment IV

1.The Directorate of State Security protects the social order against subversion, and its organisation, its powers and its records are determined by decree.

Article 71 (1961)

Displaced by Amendment III

1.Schooling, health care and water for domestic use are supplied without charge, within the resources the plan allocates.

Article 94 (1961)

Displaced by Amendment II

1.A public enterprise is directed by a director whom the responsible ministry appoints and dismisses.
2.The workers of the enterprise are consulted on the organisation of the work, and the record of the consultation is transmitted to the ministry.

Article 106 (1961)

Displaced by Amendment X

1.The currency of the Republic is the sarn, issued by the State Bank on the decision of the Council of State.

Article 117 (1961)

Displaced by Amendment V

1.The Assembly of the Working People has 200 members, elected for five years from the candidates the Front of the Working People presents in each constituency.

Article 146 (1961)

Displaced by Amendment V

1.The Presidium of the Assembly of the Working People exercises the functions of the head of State, and its president is elected by the Assembly from among its members.

Article 183 (1961)

Displaced by Amendment VI

1.Justice is administered by the courts, which apply the law in the spirit of the decisions of the Assembly of the Working People.
2.A judge is elected by the Assembly of the Working People for four years and is recalled by it.

Article 175 (1961)

Displaced by Amendment VIII

1.Local affairs are administered by people's councils, which execute the decisions of the organs above them and are answerable to those organs.

From later wordings

Article 95 (Amendment II, 1974)

Displaced by Amendment XII

1.The council of the workers proposes three candidates for the office of director, and the responsible ministry appoints one of them.
2.The ministry states no reason for the choice made among the candidates proposed.

Article 117(4) (Amendment IX, 2003)

Displaced by Amendment XI

1.A list which obtains less than five per cent of the votes cast in the Republic receives no seat.

Article 119(5) (Amendment V, 1990)

Displaced by Amendment XI

1.A party finances itself from the contributions of its members and from donations, and publishes the total received in each year.

Article 20 (Amendment VII, 1994)

Displaced by Amendment XII

1.The Republic, a state and a public enterprise contract a loan abroad on the authorisation of the Council of Ministers, which reports the authorisation to the Assembly within ninety days.
2.The Assembly may withhold approval, and the withholding does not affect an obligation already contracted.

Article 190 (Amendment VI, 1992)

Displaced by Amendment XII

1.Offences of corruption are investigated by the prosecution of the state in which they were committed.
2.The opening of an investigation into a holder of federal office requires the prior consent of the chamber or of the organ which elected that holder.